Miljøfilosofikonferanse, torsdag og fredag på UiT.
Terra: complex relations and dependencies on the Earth
Institute for Philosophy, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø
6th-7th June.
Much of environmental philosophy’s theoretical foundation is based upon a rejection of what Donna Haraway calls “bounded individualism” - individualism that seeks to overcome dependence as a value in itself – and advocates the development of alternative ontologies. Philosophers such as Arne Næss, Mary Midgley and Holmes Rolston have emphasized humans’ relational and dependent nature in their writings but the full ethical and political implications of this alternative way of seeing humanity are yet to be fully explored.
What would it take to abandon the ideas of autonomy and freedom underlying our modern society? Might we prefer independence to dependence? Might natural science dissolve from within if it was forced to study every object as a complex intertwined phenomenon? Would political institutions shatter if acknowledging complex relations meant it was impossible to assign particular responsibilities? And how can our understandings of complex dependence be fruitful and lead to sympoesis and transformation?
This conference is organised by the Environmental Philosophy Research Group (EPG) at the Institute for Philosophy, UiT, Arctic University in Tromsø. It aims to stimulate discussions about how our dependencies might challenge and square with the idea of autonomy and the philosophical ramifications of ‘being related’. Furthermore, we would like to consider what ‘being related’ means ethically, scientifically and politically, and whether it has a special significance in the Anthropocene.
Themes:
For enquiries about the conference topics and programme, please contact Svein Anders Noer Lie - svein.a.lie@uit.no – or Clare Heyward – jennifer.c.heyward@uit.no