Endgame and the Life to Come

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-135
Author(s):  
Christopher Conti
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Dystopian Fiction ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
To Come

Abstract This paper revisits the interpretations of Endgame by Theodor Adorno and Stanley Cavell via an unusual route: Samuel Scheffler’s afterlife conjecture. Scheffler’s thought experiment—based on a doomsday scenario that Beckett’s characters already appear to inhabit—seeks the achievement of the ordinary in an age of climate change by disclosing our evaluative dependence on future generations. I suggest that the paradigm shift to a global subject lies not in the dystopian fiction Scheffler looks to, however, but the “shudder” of the ‘I’ in aesthetic experience, the model for which is Beckett’s Endgame.

A world transformed by climate justice

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-365
Author(s):  
Madita Standke-Erdmann ◽  
Alina Viehoff
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
The Future

What will the world look like in 2040 and how did we get there? How will climate change, one of, if not the most pressing issue of our times be tackled on a global scale? With these questions in mind, this article invites the reader to perform a thought experiment into the future. Following an imagined snapshot of the year 2040, the reader is guided through major global developments regarding climate change, social movements and, eventually, climate justice from the 2020s to 2040s. By imagining social, political and economic consequences of climate change and responses to them, this article paints a picture of what the future could look like if climate justice became a guiding principle in the struggle of mitigating the effects of climate change. Suggesting a paradigm shift from securitizing climate change to securing climate justice, this ‘future’ calls for a discursive turn of the manner in which climate change is thought of and acted upon. It requires different entities, including academia, to recognize their role as political actors within society. Consequently, it is crucial to reflect upon whose security is (not) considered but also which responses are taken into account in what way to mitigate security risks related to climate change. The article concludes that imagining a future of climate justice is pivotal to finding solutions to the challenges we are confronted with, that is, keeping the metaphoric ship from crashing into the cliffs.

scholarly journals The Concept of Sustainability in the Romanian Top Universities’ Strategic Plans

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Șimon ◽  
Claudia E. Stoian ◽  
Vasile Gherheș
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Strategic Plans ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
To Come ◽  
The One ◽  
Sustainable Universities

The concept of sustainability has been given more and more attention lately as the effects of climate change drastically impact society and threaten the wellbeing of future generations. In this context, universities are expected to build bridges between the academic and research communities on the one hand and society on the other, and to further the values associated with this concept in order to care for the generations to come. Thus, the present study describes the causes that have led to the emergence of this concept, defines it, and highlights some of the actions taken by universities and researchers. The question raised regards the position of the top Romanian universities towards the concept of sustainability. The way it is used explicitly in their strategic plans is viewed as proof as to whether the universities give it prominence or not, and as such, act accordingly. In order to achieve the primary objective of the research, a quantitative and a qualitative analysis were carried out. The main conclusion drawn is that the top Romanian universities are still at the beginning in terms of raising awareness about the concept and in terms of implementing sustainable measures in the domains that help them build sustainable universities.

Transcendentalism Without Escape

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-585
Author(s):  
Dominic Mastroianni
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Essay Review ◽  
Henry David Thoreau ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Present Value ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
The World

AbstractThis essay-review asks what transcendentalism can contribute to our sense of the present moment and our capacity to imagine more just and livable futures. In doing so, it suggests an alternative to the view that transcendentalism embraces escapism and isolating individualism. I focus on Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, presuming that the present value of an idea of transcendentalism is to be discovered in their writings or nowhere. The two are centrally concerned with describing the conditions under which experience is acquired; their writing, then, evinces a wish to get closer to the world, not to escape it. What they do seek to transcend is not the world but our illusions about it, particularly those that feed egotism. The irony of calling Emerson in particular an escapist is that his writing makes escape so difficult to achieve. The process of reading Emerson—of finding a sentence suddenly captivating, just where it had been hopelessly dull—models and perhaps prompts a process of similar discovery about the mundane world. I conclude by linking transcendentalism to ideas of critical humility and naïveté suggested by Stanley Cavell, Toril Moi, Jane Bennett, and Theodor Adorno. Some form of naïveté, I speculate, might help us confront our inability to change in the midst of anthropogenic climate change and mass extinction.

Climate Justice

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Mary Robinson ◽  
The Public ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
To Come ◽  
Run Up ◽  
High Level

Climate justice requires sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution equitably and fairly. It brings together justice between generations and justice within generations. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals summit in September 2015, and the Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in December 2015, brought climate justice center stage in global discussions. In the run up to Paris, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, instituted the Climate Justice Dialogue. The editors of this volume, an economist and a philosopher, served on the High Level Advisory Committee of the Climate Justice Dialogue. They noted the overlap and mutual enforcement between the economic and philosophical discourses on climate justice. But they also noted the great need for these strands to come together to support the public and policy discourse. This volume is the result.

Configurations to Superior Environmental Innovation Strategy: A Both–And Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 108602662110316
Author(s):  
Tiziana Russo-Spena ◽  
Nadia Di Paola ◽  
Aidan O’Driscoll
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Innovation Strategy ◽  
Environmental Innovation ◽  
Data Set

An effective climate change action involves the critical role that companies must play in assuring the long-term human and social well-being of future generations. In our study, we offer a more holistic, inclusive, both–and approach to the challenge of environmental innovation (EI) that uses a novel methodology to identify relevant configurations for firms engaging in a superior EI strategy. A conceptual framework is proposed that identifies six sets of driving characteristics of EI and two sets of beneficial outcomes, all inherently tensional. Our analysis utilizes a complementary rather than an oppositional point of view. A data set of 65 companies in the ICT value chain is analyzed via fuzzy-set comparative analysis (fsQCA) and a post-QCA procedure. The results reveal that achieving a superior EI strategy is possible in several scenarios. Specifically, after close examination, two main configuration groups emerge, referred to as technological environmental innovators and organizational environmental innovators.

Fostering climate change consensus: The role of intimacy in group discussions

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252110206
Author(s):  
Lyn M. van Swol ◽  
Emma Frances Bloomfield ◽  
Chen-Ting Chang ◽  
Stephanie Willes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Group Consensus ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Group Attraction ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
To Come ◽  
Collective Engagement

This study examined if creating intimacy in a group discussion is more effective toward reaching consensus about climate change than a focus on information. Participants were randomly assigned to either a group that spent the first part of an online discussion engaging in self-disclosure and focusing on shared values (intimacy condition) or discussing information from an article about climate change (information condition). Afterward, all groups were given the same instructions to try to come to group consensus on their opinions about climate change. Participants in the intimacy condition had higher ratings of social cohesion, group attraction, task interdependence, and collective engagement and lower ratings of ostracism than the information condition. Intimacy groups were more likely to reach consensus, with ostracism and the emotional tone of discussion mediating this effect. Participants were more likely to change their opinion to reflect that climate change is real in the intimacy than information condition.

scholarly journals Current Understanding of Novel Coronavirus: Molecular Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Treatment Approaches

Immuno ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-66
Author(s):  
Niraj Kumar Jha ◽  
Madhan Jeyaraman ◽  
Mahesh Rachamalla ◽  
Shreesh Ojha ◽  
Kamal Dua ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Functional Outcomes ◽  
Cellular Therapy ◽  
Treatment Modalities ◽  
Unknown Etiology ◽  
Huge Number ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Nano Medicine

An outbreak of “Pneumonia of Unknown Etiology” occurred in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019. Later, the agent factor was identified and coined as SARS-CoV-2, and the disease was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In a shorter period, this newly emergent infection brought the world to a standstill. On 11 March 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. Researchers across the globe have joined their hands to investigate SARS-CoV-2 in terms of pathogenicity, transmissibility, and deduce therapeutics to subjugate this infection. The researchers and scholars practicing different arts of medicine are on an extensive quest to come up with safer ways to curb the pathological implications of this viral infection. A huge number of clinical trials are underway from the branch of allopathy and naturopathy. Besides, a paradigm shift on cellular therapy and nano-medicine protocols has to be optimized for better clinical and functional outcomes of COVID-19-affected individuals. This article unveils a comprehensive review of the pathogenesis mode of spread, and various treatment modalities to combat COVID-19 disease.

scholarly journals An informed thought experiment exploring the potential for a paradigm shift in aquatic food production

2021 ◽  
Vol 206 ◽  
pp. 105574
Author(s):  
Caitlin D. Kuempel ◽  
Halley E. Froehlich ◽  
Benjamin S. Halpern
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Aquatic Food

A “Natural” Proposal for Addressing Climate Change

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
Long Time

One of the fundamental challenges of climate change is that we contribute to it increment by increment, and experience it increment by increment after a considerable time lag. As a consequence, it is very difficult to see what we are doing to ourselves, to future generations, and to the living planet as a whole. There are monumental ethical issues involved, but they are obscured by the incremental nature of the process and the long time frame before reaching the concentration of greenhouse gases and the ensuing accumulation of radiant heat—and consequent climate change—that ensues.

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