The vast production of waste and garbage on a global scale is the shameful secret of our contemporary civilization, what preferably we all seek to keep "in the dark," when throwing trash away unthinkingly during our daily lives. And yet, the trash we leave behind in the form of plastics, chemicals, and other "epic waste," with a longevity exceeding tens of thousands of years, will come to define who are as a species. In the age of the Anthropocene, we have become homo detritus. The paradox of the Age of the Anthropocene, as I shall examine his this talk, is that while modernity has forgone the idea of immortality, our contemporary world is materially dependent on the social and technological production of "immortality," not, however, as Classically envisioned, in terms of "great memorable deeds and actions," "enduring scientific discoveries," or "universal values," but through the production of "epic waste" (plastics, nuclear waste, etc.). What kind of cultural artefact is waste and garbage? How does the production of "epic waste" reconfigure the relation between time and eternity? How does this focus on waste in the Anthropocene challenge attempts to re-think "the ethical" in view of an imperative towards the future, the future of all futures?
 

Speaker
Prof. Nicolas de Warren
Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, the Pennsylvania State University

Online
No registration is required
Meeting ID: 938 0232 7333
Link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/93802327333

Face-to-face
Register by 23 Nov 2023
Link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13678398