Thomas Nail is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Denver. He is the author of The Figure of the Migrant (Stanford, 2015) and Being and Motion (2018).

"One of the most remarkable books I've read in some time. Thomas Nail forges a mode of materialist philosophy in conversation with recent, cross-disciplinary movements in the environmental humanities, generating a mode of thinking and theorizing that moves beyond the scale of human life."—Claire Colebrook, Pennsylvania State University "Thomas Nail has developed a much-needed, and previously underrepresented philosophy of geology. In elaborating a process theory of a kinetic earth, this book helps us imagine our planet as neither a static place of habitation nor a protective Mother Earth."—Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University "Is ecocide, unconsciously practiced by industrio-techno-capitalist humans to their own detriment and potential extinction, a direct result of the reduction and destruction of Earth's complex energy dissipation? In an ambitious and fabulous synthesis, with a Lucretian sensibility and deep scientific rapprochement, Thomas Nail gives us back a real Earth, where life is part of a planetary more-than-human dissipative system and humans better get with the flow. A fascinating, difficult, needed scientifico-philosophical document, Theory of the Earth should interest and irritate scientists as it provides a needed provocation to much modern environmental philosophy."—Dorion Sagan, author of Cosmic Apprentice: Dispatches from the Edges of Science "While Anthropocene ideology focuses on the destructive action of humans on a passive Earth, Nail posits that conceptual refocusing—away from conservation toward an ethics of energy transformation—can help address the serious environmental problems we face. Though chiefly a work of philosophy, this text is accessible for any advanced reader interested in environmental meta issues. Recommended."—E. Kincanon, CHOICE

• Introduction1. The Flow of Matter2. The Fold of Elements3. The Planetary Field4. Centripetal Minerality5. Hadean Earth6. Centrifugal Atmospherics7. Archean Earth I: Pneumatology8. Archean Earth II: Biogenesis9. Tensional Vegetality10. Proterozoic Earth11. Elastic Animality12. Phanerozoic Earth I: Kinomorphology13. Phanerozoic Earth II: Terrestrialization14. Kinocene Earth15. Kinocene EthicsConclusion: The Future

Thomas Nail is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Denver. He is the author of The Figure of the Migrant (Stanford, 2015) and Being and Motion (2018).

"One of the most remarkable books I've read in some time. Thomas Nail forges a mode of materialist philosophy in conversation with recent, cross-disciplinary movements in the environmental humanities, generating a mode of thinking and theorizing that moves beyond the scale of human life."—Claire Colebrook, Pennsylvania State University "Thomas Nail has developed a much-needed, and previously underrepresented philosophy of geology. In elaborating a process theory of a kinetic earth, this book helps us imagine our planet as neither a static place of habitation nor a protective Mother Earth."—Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University "Is ecocide, unconsciously practiced by industrio-techno-capitalist humans to their own detriment and potential extinction, a direct result of the reduction and destruction of Earth's complex energy dissipation? In an ambitious and fabulous synthesis, with a Lucretian sensibility and deep scientific rapprochement, Thomas Nail gives us back a real Earth, where life is part of a planetary more-than-human dissipative system and humans better get with the flow. A fascinating, difficult, needed scientifico-philosophical document, Theory of the Earth should interest and irritate scientists as it provides a needed provocation to much modern environmental philosophy."—Dorion Sagan, author of Cosmic Apprentice: Dispatches from the Edges of Science "While Anthropocene ideology focuses on the destructive action of humans on a passive Earth, Nail posits that conceptual refocusing—away from conservation toward an ethics of energy transformation—can help address the serious environmental problems we face. Though chiefly a work of philosophy, this text is accessible for any advanced reader interested in environmental meta issues. Recommended."—E. Kincanon, CHOICE

• Introduction1. The Flow of Matter2. The Fold of Elements3. The Planetary Field4. Centripetal Minerality5. Hadean Earth6. Centrifugal Atmospherics7. Archean Earth I: Pneumatology8. Archean Earth II: Biogenesis9. Tensional Vegetality10. Proterozoic Earth11. Elastic Animality12. Phanerozoic Earth I: Kinomorphology13. Phanerozoic Earth II: Terrestrialization14. Kinocene Earth15. Kinocene EthicsConclusion: The Future