Environment As a Short Circuit in the Knowledge Production System

Abstract

In mainstream environmental discourse, the acceleration of climate change and the consequent need for adaptation in the actions and ways of thinking of those involved is becoming increasingly popular. Most scholars and civil society's actors no longer deny the existence of a climate crisis. Very little is being done about it, however, which appears logically and rationally incomprehensible. One of the profound reasons might be that environment is not what we think it is and it manifests its otherness by short-circuiting our knowledge system and the categories and dogmas on which it has been built. One of the main traits of our deep cultural paradigm is the privilege we have granted to the logical operation of disjunction (Morin), which leads to the proliferation of dichotomies and the division of reality into smaller and smaller fractions. Although an apparently harmless practice, it has shaped and bent our Weltanschauung and the world we think we live in, giving it a mechanical and fragmentary appearance. The environment is the perfect place for this delusion to crash, as it can only be understood in terms of interconnectedness and interdependence. Since its first appearance, ecology (Haeckel) stressed ideas against the grain of Modernity: coexistence and cooperation against selfishness and competition; complexity against simplicity and linear causality; dependence and integration against autonomy. We use these words, but need to make proper sense of them. We may even believe in them, but we do not act accordingly, as they are alien to our common sense and our view of the world. The acceleration on climatic change shows that both common sense and view of the world are wrong. The certainties and dogmas that found them need to be criticised and deeply revised: human exceptionalism, cognitive exceptionalism and a static reality instead of a processual becoming. An example of the need for new cognitive tools is the imaginal representation of the environment as just an object amongst other objects, which can be organised like all others. By denying its unicity as something indescribable by our categories-thus requiring a brand-new conceptual framework-we get to handle it only through misunderstanding and mistreatment, which risks to prove fatal for our species.

Full text

Environment As a Short Circuit in the Knowledge Production System
In mainstream environmental discourse, the acceleration of climate change and the consequent need
for adaptation in the actions and ways of thinking of those involved is becoming increasingly popular.
Most scholars and civil society’s actors no longer deny the existence of a climate crisis. Very little is
being done about it, however, which appears logically and rationally incomprehensible. One of the
profound reasons might be that environment is not what we think it is and it manifests its otherness
by short-circuiting our knowledge system and the categories and dogmas on which it has been built.
One of the main traits of our deep cultural paradigm is the privilege we have granted to the logical
operation of disjunction (Morin), which leads to the proliferation of dichotomies and the division of
reality into smaller and smaller fractions. Although an apparently harmless practice, it has shaped and
bent our Weltanschauung and the world we think we live in, giving it a mechanical and fragmentary
appearance. The environment is the perfect place for this delusion to crash, as it can only be
understood in terms of interconnectedness and interdependence. Since its first appearance, ecology
(Haeckel) stressed ideas against the grain of Modernity: coexistence and cooperation against
selfishness and competition; complexity against simplicity and linear causality; dependence and
integration against autonomy. We use these words, but need to make proper sense of them. We may
even believe in them, but we do not act accordingly, as they are alien to our common sense and our
view of the world.
The acceleration on climatic change shows that both common sense and view of the world are wrong.
The certainties and dogmas that found them need to be criticised and deeply revised: human
exceptionalism, cognitive exceptionalism and a static reality instead of a processual becoming. An
example of the need for new cognitive tools is the imaginal representation of the environment as just
an object amongst other objects, which can be organised like all others. By denying its unicity as
something indescribable by our categories – thus requiring a brand-new conceptual framework –we
get to handle it only through misunderstanding and mistreatment, which risks to prove fatal for our
species.
The focus of this volume is to reflect multifocal contributions with a transdisciplinary approach that
aim to go beyond the current “simple” paradigm:
• highlighting its flaws and inconsistencies and also their widespread consequences outside of
knowledge production: in politics, economy, relationships and everyday life;
• theorising or presenting research about a new conceptual framework and new practices up to
come to terms with the actual crises of the XXI century.
This volume welcomes proposals from both trans- and interdisciplinary or single discipline areas
focusing on:
• Describing the Current Social Paradigm Shift
• Extending the Idea of Environment: internal and external, relational, and physical
• How to Act on a New Weltanschauung
• Knowledge Production and its Flaws and Opportunities
• New Tools for a new Knowledge
• New Ways and Practices of Understanding the Environment
• Proposing Adaptability Strategies for Societies
If you are interested in contributing to this edited volume, please submit your proposal (500-word
max.), and biography (150-word max.) to the editor Dr. Fabio D’Andrea (fabio.dandrea@unipg.it)
by November 30, 2023.
Proposal acceptance will be notified by December 22, 2023.
Contributors whose abstracts get selected will receive the Vernon Press submission guidelines to
prepare a 6000-word chapter.
Full chapter submissions are to be delivered by April 15, 2024.