Table Of Content“Fearing the state of being ‘lost in the world we have made,’ Williston roams far
and wide for reference points in a time of bewildering climatic upheaval. With
grand, Harari-like sweeps, this insightful romp through philosophy, literature,
ecology, and technology displays the creative boldness the times demand.”
—Christopher J. Preston, University of Montana,
Missoula. Author of The Synthetic Age:
Outdesigning Evolution, Resurrecting Species
and Reengineering our World
“An accessible and engaging analysis of the ways in which the climate crisis is
analogous to other, historically significant ‘traumas.’ This is a vitally important
topic, and I applaud Williston for his creative approach to bringing its philo-
sophical aspects to a broad readership.”
—Steven Nadler, William H. Hay II Professor of
Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Author of Think Least of Death: Spinoza
on How to Live and How to Die
“This lucid analysis of the crisis in Western thinking generated by climate change
shows how previous historical disruptions have led to the kind of innovations
in thought that we now urgently need. It should be read carefully by anyone
wondering how to think and act in our new Anthropocene circumstances.”
—Simon Dalby, Balsillie School of International
Affairs. Author of Anthropocene Geopolitics:
Globalization, Security, Sustainability
“ A timely, accessible, smart, and informed discussion of the climate crisis, and
our disorienting exit from the Holocene. Williston shows why philosophy mat-
ters in these times, how it can be done with passion and rigour, and what wisdom
looks like for all of us worried about the future of life.”
—Todd Dufresne, Lakehead University. Author of
The Democracy of Suffering: Life on the Edge
of Catastrophe, Philosophy in the Anthropocene
PHILOSOPHY AND THE CLIMATE
CRISIS
This book explores how the history of philosophy can orient us to the new real-
ity brought on by the climate crisis.
If we understand the climate crisis as a deeply existential one, it can help to
examine the way past philosophers responded to similar crises in their times.
This book explores five past crises, each involving a unique form of collective
trauma. These events—war, occupation, exile, scientific revolution and political
revolution—inspired the philosophers to remake the whole world in thought, to
construct a metaphysics. Williston distills a key intellectual innovation from each
metaphysical system:
• That political power must be constrained by knowledge of the climate
system (Plato)
• That ethical and political reasoning must be informed by care or love of the
ecological whole (Augustine)
• That we must enhance the design of the technosphere (Descartes)
• That we must conceive the Earth as an internally complex system (Spinoza)
• And that we must grant rights to anyone or anything—ultimately the Earth
system itself—whose vital interests are threatened by the effects of climate
change (Hegel).
P hilosophy and the Climate Crisis will be of great interest to students and scholars
of climate change, environmental philosophy and ethics and the environmental
humanities.
Byron Williston is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Wilfrid
Laurier University, Canada. He is the author of The Ethics of Climate Change: An
Introduction (Routledge, 2018).
Routledge Environmental Ethics
Series Editor: Benjamin Hale
University of Colorado, Boulder
The Routledge Environmental Ethics series aims to gather novel work on ques-
tions that fall at the intersection of the normative and the practical, with an eye
toward conceptual issues that bear on environmental policy and environmental
science. Recognizing the growing need for input from academic philosophers
and political theorists in the broader environmental discourse, but also acknowl-
edging that moral responsibilities for environmental alteration cannot be under-
stood without rooting themselves in the practical and descriptive details, this
series aims to unify contributions from within the environmental literature.
Books in this series can cover topics in a range of environmental contexts,
including individual responsibility for climate change, conceptual matters affect-
ing climate policy, the moral underpinnings of endangered species protection,
complications facing wildlife management, the nature of extinction, the ethics
of reintroduction and assisted migration, reparative responsibilities to restore,
among many others.
Climate Justice and Non-State Actors
Corporations, Regions, Cities, and Individuals
Edited by Jeremy Moss and Lachlan Umbers
Philosophy in the American West
A Geography of Thought
Edited by Josh Hates, Gerard Kuperus and Brian Treanor
Philosophy and the Climate Crisis
How the Past Can Save the Present
Byron Williston
For more information on the series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Environmental-Ethics/book-series/ENVE
PHILOSOPHY AND THE
CLIMATE CRISIS
How the Past Can Save the Present
Byron Williston
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Byron Williston
The right of Byron Williston to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and record-
ing, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permis-
sion in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or reg-
istered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
B ritish Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
L ibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Williston, Byron, 1965– author.
Title: Philosophy and the climate crisis : how the past can save the present /
Byron Williston.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Routledge environmental ethics | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020019790 (print) | LCCN 2020019791 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367506797 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367506803 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003050766 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy and science. | Philosophy—History. |
Climatic changes.
Classification: LCC B67 .W545 2020 (print) | LCC B67 (ebook) |
DDC 190—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019790
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019791
I SBN: 978-0-367-50679-7 (hbk)
I SBN: 978-0-367-50680-3 (pbk)
I SBN: 978-1-003-05076-6 (ebk)
T ypeset in Bembo
b y Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART 1
Disorientation 11
1 In praise of bewilderment 13
2 Foundations: God and Nature 32
3 The shape of our crisis 51
PART 2
Five intellectual innovations 71
4 Plato: epistocracy 73
5 Augustine: love 92
6 Descartes: the technosphere 111
7 Spinoza: diversity in unity 130
8 Hegel: rights 148
viii Contents
PART 3
Reorientation 167
9 Anthropocene monism 169
Index 189
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is the product of years of philosophical discussions with colleagues
and students on the topics of both climate change and the history of modern phi-
losophy. In particular I want to thank, in no particular order, Simon Dalby, Gary
Foster, Christopher Preston, Steven Nadler, Todd Dufresne, Jennifer Welchman,
Allen Habib, C. Tyler DesRoches, Matthias Fritsch, Frank Jankunis and Rocky
Jacobsen. Audiences in numerous locations have also given me copious food for
thought on these themes, and I thank all of those folks for coming out to hear
me speak. A special thanks is due to my Routledge editors, Annabelle Harris
and Matthew Shobrook, for seeing the value in the project and shepherding it so
professionally through the publication process. Later stages of work on this book
were completed while in virtual lockdown because of COVID-19. My family
therefore deserves a special shout-out for allowing me to retreat to the upstairs
office for whole days, and for maintaining relative household peace all the while.
Work on the manuscript was facilitated by a Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada Insight Development Grant for which I am very
grateful.
