Developing Planetary Humanities
If modern Western disciplinary structures, laid forth by Dilthey and others in the 19th century, have helped structure the world in ways that bring about climate change and gross economic inequities (along with many “good” things such as vaccines and some modern comforts), how might we re-structure...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Religions |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/6/681 |
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| Summary: | If modern Western disciplinary structures, laid forth by Dilthey and others in the 19th century, have helped structure the world in ways that bring about climate change and gross economic inequities (along with many “good” things such as vaccines and some modern comforts), how might we re-structure our thinking and learning in ways that address these violent lacunae? What does it mean to educate in a truly globalized world that is facing climate change, extinction, and growing injustice? The answer to that surely cannot be “more of the same”. Following the work of critical theorists and the ideas of Paulo Freire and bell hooks, among others, this essay argues that education should be about imagining and working toward a more just and ecologically sound version of the planetary future in a way that is attentive to as much input as possible from multiple perspectives (human and non). The goals of such an education are connective, grounding, and encountering “others” rather than reductive, productive, and geared toward technology transfer. What would it mean to undiscipline or open our disciplinary categories in ways that reattune us to the changing, entangled planet of which we are a part? What will it take to develop planetary humanities and technologies? If humans are not exceptions to the rest of the natural world, and if the nonhuman world is not just dead matter to be used toward human ends, then how do we go about re-grounding our epistemologies within the planet, rather than continuously thinking “out of this world”? The first part of this essay offers a critique of the reductive and productive model that turns the world into a “standing reserve” for use by some humans. The second part of the essay outlines some principles for knowledge that are more connective, grounding and enable us to counter the multiple others within the planetary community. Such “planetary” knowledge reminds humans of the <i>humus</i> of our humanity, connects us to other life found through compassion (to suffer with), reminds us of the justice of good company (sharing of bread/resources), and focuses on the playfulness of public, political conversations (the ability to be converted to another’s point of view). In the third part, I suggest some grounded metaphors for planetary thinking: wild and slow thinking, elemental and grounded thinking, and creaturely and mycelium thinking. |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1444 |