Arne Johan Vetlesen – författare

This book engages with the classic philosophical question of mind and matter, seeking to show its altered meaning and acuteness in the era of the Anthropocene. Arguing that matter, and, more broadly, the natural world, has been misconceived since Descartes, it explores the devastating impact that this has had in practice in the West. As such, alternatives are needed, whether philosophical ones such as those offered by figures such as Whitehead and Nagel, or posthumanist ones such as those developed by Barad and Latour. Drawing on recent anthropological work ignored by philosophers and sociologists alike, the author considers a radical alternative cosmology: animism understood as panpsychism in practice. This understanding of mind and matter, of culture and nature, is then turned against present-day posthumanist critiques of what the Anthropocene amounts to, showing them up as philosophically misguided, politically mute, and ethically wanting. A ground-breaking reconceptualization of the natural world and our treatment of it, Cosmologies of the Anthropocene will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, philosophy and anthropology with interests in our understanding of and relationship with nature.

This book engages with the classic philosophical question of mind and matter, seeking to show its altered meaning and acuteness in the era of the Anthropocene. Arguing that matter, and, more broadly, the natural world, has been misconceived since Descartes, it explores the devastating impact that this has had in practice in the West. As such, alternatives are needed, whether philosophical ones such as those offered by figures such as Whitehead and Nagel, or posthumanist ones such as those developed by Barad and Latour. Drawing on recent anthropological work ignored by philosophers and sociologists alike, the author considers a radical alternative cosmology: animism understood as panpsychism in practice. This understanding of mind and matter, of culture and nature, is then turned against present-day posthumanist critiques of what the Anthropocene amounts to, showing them up as philosophically misguided, politically mute, and ethically wanting. A ground-breaking reconceptualization of the natural world and our treatment of it, Cosmologies of the Anthropocene will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, philosophy and anthropology with interests in our understanding of and relationship with nature.

This book engages with the changing ways in which we, as a society and culture, look upon and interact with animals, stressing how much animals differ among themselves. An invitation to appreciate the peculiar role of animals in telling important if uncomfortable truths about who we are and where we are heading – namely, towards a world so much poorer in cultural, moral, and biological diversity – as a result of the ongoing decimation of so many other species. Drawing on a variety of thought ranging from that of Midgley, Plumwood, and Murdoch to Levinas, Derrida, and Habermas, from ecophilosophers to conservation biologists, Animal Lives and Why They Matter asks how we have come to this, and what an alternative, less destructive approach to our now precarious coexistence with animals might look like. Spanning the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, and anthropology, this enquiry into various cross-species relationships and encounters will appeal to scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences with interests in philosophy, ethics, human-animal interaction, and environmental thought.

This book engages with the changing ways in which we, as a society and culture, look upon and interact with animals, stressing how much animals differ among themselves. An invitation to appreciate the peculiar role of animals in telling important if uncomfortable truths about who we are and where we are heading – namely, towards a world so much poorer in cultural, moral, and biological diversity – as a result of the ongoing decimation of so many other species. Drawing on a variety of thought ranging from that of Midgley, Plumwood, and Murdoch to Levinas, Derrida, and Habermas, from ecophilosophers to conservation biologists, Animal Lives and Why They Matter asks how we have come to this, and what an alternative, less destructive approach to our now precarious coexistence with animals might look like. Spanning the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, and anthropology, this enquiry into various cross-species relationships and encounters will appeal to scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences with interests in philosophy, ethics, human-animal interaction, and environmental thought.

While the impacts of climate change become increasingly severe, efforts to prevent them suffer one blow after the other, as seen in the rise of far-right populist parties in Western democracies. Why does denialism thrive when blatantly contradicted by the realities before our very eyes, be it wild-fires, floods, drought and melting glaciers? Should we abandon the assumption that the more solid the knowledge about climate change, the more eager will ordinary people as well as political leaders be to take action?

This book sets out to explain the contradiction witnessed be-tween knowledge and action. Inspired by Clive Hamilton’s claim that “denial is due to a surplus of culture rather than a deficit of information”, the book critiques the focus on “cognitive disso-nance” in individual agents advocated by climate psychology as well as the individualistic bias in liberal political theory. To get out of the current theoretical as well as political impasse, the author suggests three moves are necessary: from knowledge to first-hand experience, and so to feelings; from the tension within the individual to the social organization of denial; and from the obsession with personal responsibility – nowadays in the guise of building resilience – to exposing the complicity of the culture of neoliberalism in the intimately intertwined crisis of politics and the climate alike.

A highly timely and sharp analysis of the roots of inaction and denial and possible strategies for resistance, it will appeal to scholars and upper-level students with interests in social, political and environmental philosophy and psychology, political theory, and environmental studies.

While the impacts of climate change become increasingly severe, efforts to prevent them suffer one blow after the other, as seen in the rise of far-right populist parties in Western democracies. Why does denialism thrive when blatantly contradicted by the realities before our very eyes, be it wild-fires, floods, drought and melting glaciers? Should we abandon the assumption that the more solid the knowledge about climate change, the more eager will ordinary people as well as political leaders be to take action?

This book sets out to explain the contradiction witnessed be-tween knowledge and action. Inspired by Clive Hamilton’s claim that “denial is due to a surplus of culture rather than a deficit of information”, the book critiques the focus on “cognitive disso-nance” in individual agents advocated by climate psychology as well as the individualistic bias in liberal political theory. To get out of the current theoretical as well as political impasse, the author suggests three moves are necessary: from knowledge to first-hand experience, and so to feelings; from the tension within the individual to the social organization of denial; and from the obsession with personal responsibility – nowadays in the guise of building resilience – to exposing the complicity of the culture of neoliberalism in the intimately intertwined crisis of politics and the climate alike.

A highly timely and sharp analysis of the roots of inaction and denial and possible strategies for resistance, it will appeal to scholars and upper-level students with interests in social, political and environmental philosophy and psychology, political theory, and environmental studies.

A study of the increasingly precarious relationship between humans and nature, this book seeks to go beyond work already contributed to the environmental movement. It does so by highlighting the importance of experiencing, rather than merely theorizing nature, while realizing that such experience is becoming increasingly rare, thus reinforcing the estrangement from nature that is a source of its ongoing human-caused destruction. In his original approach to environmental philosophy, the author argues for the reinstatement of nature''s value outside of its exploitative usefulness for human ends. Such a perspective emphasizes the extent to which the environmental problem is a concrete reality requiring urgent action, based on a multi-sensuous appreciation of humans'' dependence on nonhuman lifeforms.

Designed as an accompaniment to undergraduate and postgraduate research, The Denial of Nature draws on empirically informed literature from the social sciences to examine what life is really like for humans and nature in the era of global capitalism. The book contends that capitalist society exploits nature - both in the form of human capital and natural capital - more relentlessly than any other and offers an environmental philosophy which actively opposes current developments. Through discussions of the work of Teresa Brennan, Theodor Adorno, Martin Heidegger and Hans Jonas, and through a radical critique of the nature deficit in Jürgen Habermas'' theory of capitalist modernity, The Denial of Nature relies on insights from Critical Realism to bring together several, seldom-linked philosophies and suggest a new approach to the heavily-discussed question of environmental ethics.

Arne Johan Vetlesen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo, Norway and the author of twenty books among them Perception, Empathy and Judgment: An Inquiry into the Preconditions of Moral Performance (1994), Closenes: An Ethics (with H. Jodalen; 1997), Evil and Human Agency ​(2005) and A Philosophy of Pain (2010).

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