Recent and Forthcoming: Holloway, Parker, Vereb

In this virtual workshop, three authors will discuss their current book projects in various stages of the process.  The first part of the program will involve an interview-led open discussion among the authors.  After a short break, we will return for an open discussion among all participants.

In alphabetical order, the authors and projects are:

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Travis Holloway

SUNY Farmingdale

How to Live at the End of the World: Philosophy and Democracy for the Anthropocene

Our historical moment is marked by growing environmental catastrophes, rising populisms and populations, and the throes of neoliberalism’s worldlessness—technocratic governments that continue to subsidize private enterprise and petrocapitalism at the expense of the public good and the planet. How might philosophers propose another way to live at “the end of the world” that resists neoliberalism, ethnonationalism, and colonialism? How could a people or dēmos organize themselves more equally alongside other forms of life in an Anthropocene, or construct a democracy that is no longer distinctly human? Finally, could the specter of shared catastrophe in this century compel a new political project in ways that were unrealizable historically in prior decades? This talk will consider these questions from my new book, How to Live at the End of the World: Theory, Art, and Politics for the Anthropocene (Stanford, 2022). Along with the other panelists, I would like to workshop how to extend Part III of the book, "Democracy at the End of the World," into a new book project called How to Assemble with All of the Living.   

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Emily Anne Parker

Towson University

The Democracy of the Polis

Democracies are under attack in numerous countries around the world. Many argue that what is needed is a recommitment to democracy. This book will argue that what is needed is a reconsideration of democracy and its historical development. In a previous work I argued that the polis is a concept according to which one body is taken to be both the universal body of humankind as well as the rightful earthly agent. The polis is most clearly articulated in the work of Aristotle, and political philosophers for millennia have reached back to Aristotle for re-clarification of the polis. Aristotle was famously opposed to democracy as a concept, as were virtually all political philosophers in the polis tradition until a couple of centuries ago. However, thinkers of the turn to democracy were inspired by the polis tradition.  When democracy began to be redefined, the polis remained. This book argues that what is needed is a disambiguation of the polis tradition from the tradition of democracy. They have so far been synonymous, precisely because democracy was initially defined by the polis. Insofar as it means an identification with the polis, democracy tends toward a denial of elemental difference. I argue that while democracy would seem to be under attack, what is in fact happening is a resurgence of the democracy of the polis. Is another democracy possible? Is the concept of democracy broader than its definition according to the polis? 

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Zachary Vereb

University of Mississippi

The Green Kant: Kant, Sustainability, and the Climate Crisis

Kant’s philosophy continues to be a dominant one today, especially for those interested in applications to existing global problems. These include refugee crises, global poverty and exploitation, war, indigenous rights, and public health. However, little research discusses the specific contribution that Kant’s philosophy can make for environmental problems such as climate change. In climate ethics, much research takes as its point of departure consequentialist and economic, cost-benefit analytical methods, while the newer works in Kant scholarship focus primarily on the promise of Kant’s juridical philosophy. I hope to build upon these works to show that, among other things, Kant’s progressive account of societal development and political change have much to contribute for thinking about how to transition to a sustainable and just world. Besides exploring his political and juridical philosophy, I also consider the extent to which Kant’s pre-critical ontological works, physical geography, critical aesthetics, critical ethics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of history provide conceptual resources for thinking about sustainability and the climate crisis from both individual and collective perspectives.

Organized by:  Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, Case Western Reserve University

(outgoing) Member-at-large, IAEP EXCOM