Anthropocene, Ethical, Biological and Philosophical perspectives

THE ‘ANTHROPOCENE’ is the proposed (geological)
term referring to the epoch in which human impacts on the earth’s ecosystem are
dominant.  This seminar will explore the idea of the Anthropocene and the ethical, ecological, and philosophical demands it places upon us.

  It is a fact of contemporary reality that the climate system is significantly disturbed by human emissions, the seas are filled with plastic particles, humans are moving more rock and soils than the processes of erosion, the biological systems of the earth are profoundly changed by agriculture, forestry and urbanization, the genomes of organisms occupying large parts of the surface of the earth are engineered for human purposes, etc.  The term Anthropocene puts a name on these processes and acknowledges their significance.  The full recognition of this situation prompts important questions about how humans should respond to the world in which they find themselves.

There are a number of different replies that the idea of the anthropocene might generate.

One is to say that the whole idea is exaggerated and that the term mistakenly suggests there are no places left where ecosystems develop independently of humans.  The proper response is simply to keep taking strong action to preserve ecosystems from human impact. Another reply is to acknowledge these transformations and to try hard to reverse them so that ecosystems might be restored to some previous state.  Yet a third is to say that we should recognize and even embrace our impact and take responsibility for it by asserting better control over the earth’s ecological systems and actively manage them according to human and environmental needs.

 

0900 Christopher PrestonIntroduction to the Anthropocene, the Post-Natural, and the Post-Wild’

Discussion

1000 Raoul PrimicerioYardsticks of ecosystem management’

Discussion

1130 Christopher Preston ‘Deconstructing the Anthropocene and Saving Nature’

Discussion and Food

1300 Øyvind Stokke  The “logic of control” according to T. Adorno’

Discussion

1430 Svein Anders Noer LieNaturalness in the Anthropocene. Ethical perspectives’

Discussion

 

Organized by Institutt for Filosofi og Førstesemsterstudier (IFF) (Ethics Group)

Når: 22.04.15 kl 09.00–09.00
Hvor: UB 132
Sted: Tromsø
Målgruppe: alle
Ansvarlig: Svein Anders Noer Lie
Telefon: 77645691
E-post: svein.a.lie@uit.no
Legg i kalender