The Anthropocene
Sure, I’ll be the first philosophe de l’anthropocene: It’s what we ought.
Take the whole of moral philosophy; if one accepts that we are now living as creative agents of our geological era, the foundational paradigm has necessarily changed. The abstract chore of understanding and practicing moral philosophy must necessarily take shape in consideration of the sphere of power within which humanity takes place. However any sort of bettering for man might have been envisioned, the constraint of our own might as dwellers of the system that sustains the survival of civilization begs for its reexamination. That is, the likelihood of humanity taking a phaëtan ride on the planet begs for a vernal bloom in moral philosophy, for a moral philosophy for the anthropocene has yet to be drafted.
If this indeed is the case, the awareness of living in the anthropocene must permeate the very foundation of humanity. The realm of possibilities for humanity has been transposed into planes bounded by the still largely inexistent understanding of the era, one when the pursuit of life of life has gone supernova in the promethean reality of (literally) being responsible for shaping the Earth.
We are at the crux in the endeavor, risking civilization in pursuing civilization. We are beginning to catch up to the superstars of the most recent financial crisis, and, like them, we’ll tempt fate just as boldly, unfortunately. So we will be fucking up on a geological scale. What then?
