Theory has a mobile army of metaphors that account for its own importance. The vanguardist notion of a “cutting edge” has long served as a paradigmatic metaphor for theoretical innovation, and it’s one I take issue with in my article “Is the Post- in Posthuman the Post- in Postmodern? Or What Can the Human Be?,” […]
Archive for March, 2021
Posthumanist redistributions of the sensible
Posted in Philosophy, tagged alternative humanisms, Chinese humanities journals, critical theory, distribution of the sensible, extinction, humanism, humanities, Jacques Rancière, post-human, posthumanism, posthumanities, theory on March 31, 2021 | 3 Comments »
Equinoxx
Posted in Climate change, Manifestos & auguries, tagged Bill McKibben, bioregionalism, equinox, seasons, Vermont, weather on March 24, 2021 | Leave a Comment »
Equinoxes and solstices are geometrical phenomena. They mark the passage of time in ways that are easy to understand and more or less universal. I understand people’s desire to watch for them, to mark them out, and to even reclaim them as somehow more primordial than other kinds of temporal passage points. But changing seasons […]
The humors of democracy
Posted in Philosophy, Process-relational thought, tagged A. N. Whitehead, Alfred North Whitehead, Bakhtin, C. S. Peirce, democracy, eco-egalitarianism, eco-justice, humor, religion, revolution, Whitehead, Whitehead reading group, Whitehead Research Project, wit on March 12, 2021 | Leave a Comment »
I had been avoiding the Whitehead Research Project‘s monthly reading groups because of conflicts with other scheduled activities, but today I joined. The reading was a short, unpublished manuscript somewhat misleadingly titled “Freedom and Order,” as it’s mostly about humor, wit, and imagination. Now I understand why I’ve always been put off by, and a […]
Another cheap ecocultural manifesto
Posted in Climate change, Eco-culture, Manifestos & auguries, tagged ClimateJustice, environmental justice, manifesto, manifestos, principles, statements on March 8, 2021 | 2 Comments »
Manifestos are back in style (if this one, this one, and this one are any indication). Here’s my latest crack at a fairly simple statement of principle. The lesson of the field of environmental studies, to which I’ve dedicated more than three decades of my life, is that there’s a civilizational task ahead of us. […]