The Metaphysics of Crisis: Maintaining Moral Contingency in Environmental Philosophy
The Metaphysics of Crisis: Maintaining Moral Contingency in Environmental Philosophy

Summary/Abstract: Environmental philosophers appear to have static understandings of human culture. Be they nature/culture monists, dualists, or something in-between, the relationship between ‘culture per se’ and ‘nature’ is not understood to be subject to shifts. I argue that this way of modelling the relation leads to anti-ecological social acquiescence. If we understand nature/ culture relations as allowing for the possibility of rupture, however, then monism, dualism, and intermediary/supernumerary positions can be seen in temporal and contingent terms. A metaphysic of crisis allows us to consider whether some forms of culture have gone bad while others may not have. Ultimately this leads to a kind of discomfort, for it undermines certain penchants for environmental pragmatism and exposes a radicality at the root of otherwise mainstream naturalistic environmental ethics.

• Details
• Contents