English abstracts #88:

Johan Brun Mendes Cederfeldt: Nature in the image of man? An ontological perspective on ideas of nature in late antique religion 

The late antique transition from Greco-Roman polytheism to Christianity has frequently been emphasized as a historical context within which views on the natural world underwent a significant transformation. In this article I aim to re-evaluate the question of a late antique crisis of nature by approaching the issue through the theory of cultural ontology developed by the anthropologist Philippe Descola. I argue, firstly, that the descriptions of distortions of the natural world that appear in late antique religious polemics evidence a fear of destabilisations of the foundational analogistic ontology. Lastly, I present, through readings of Gregory of Nyssa and Basil the Great, the argument that a tension between analogism and a rudimentary naturalism can be registered in the natural thought of the Cappadocian fathers. 

Keywords: Nature, ontology, antiquity, religion, patristics

Nan Gerdes: Escaping Human Dominion and Staying Animal: On Metamorphoses in Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy’s Fairy Tales

The subject of the article is metamorphosis between animals and humans in literary fairy tales by the genre’s originator in France, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy (1650-1705). The article situates d’Aulnoy as a late representative of a once more prevalent critique of the rationale for human superiority over animals, for which René Descartes (1596-1650) with his mechanistic philosophy became the main exponent. The article suggests that the importance of d’Aulnoy’s critique of human supremacy should be seen in the light of Cartesianism reaching its apotheosis in France precisely when she published her fairy tales in the 1690s. The article also argues that the valorization of animals’ free lives in d’Aulnoy’s fairy tales opposes the absolute monarchy’s justification of its own sovereignty as an alleged necessary subjugation of a fundamentally wild nature. The article also brings forth examples of egalitarian ideals from the fairy tales, demonstrating how animals primarily embody those ideals.

Keywords: France, fairytales, animals, Cartesianism, absolutism

Sebastian Ørtoft Rasmussen, Martin Fog Arndal og Kristoffer Balslev Willert: The Metaphysical, the Sensorial, and the Ethical: New Understandings of Nature

Around 1800, a radical turn towards nature took place on the German intellectual scene. As an important event in the history of ideas, this turn has been highly topical in contemporary philosophical, literary, and historical research. One reason for this is that the representatives of this turn developed different understandings of nature – philosophical, scientific, aesthetic and ethical – which are seen by many as possible sources of inspiration for ecocritical research. These historical insights have provided new perspectives on acute questions about humanity’s relationship with nature that the climate and biodiversity crisis has put on the agenda. In this article, we examine this turn towards nature through three romantic thinkers, who collectively represent three interrelated yet diverse contributions to the period’s relevancy in light of modern ecocritical research: F. W. J. Schelling (1775-1854), Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) og Karoline von Günderrode (1780-1806). In these three authorships, a common understanding of nature erupts in varied ways as metaphysics of nature, aesthetics of nature, and ethics of nature. We describe how each author contributes towards this novel understanding of nature, while comparing ideas, inspirations, and differences across the three.

Keywords: Romanticism, nature, Schelling, Humboldt, Günderrode

Marie Kongsted Møller: Drain the Swamp! Microfascism from the Pontine Marshes to the Anthropocene

In the interwar period, Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, declared war against the Pontine Marshes, a wet and unruly area south of Rome. As part of a comprehensive land reclamation project, the fascist regime set out to drain and turn the miry soil into an agricultural land that could nourish autarchic needs. This article engages with the drainage of the Pontine Marshes as a historical example that furthers our understanding of the fascist tendencies that can emerge in the experience of nature as unruly or as in crisis. The paper suggests that the fascist land reclamation aimed to drain not only the fluid soils but also the swampy and disobedient elements in the human bodies. To elaborate on this, the article approaches the drainage of the Pontine Marshes with Gilles Deleuzes and Félix Guattari’s concept of microfascism understood as the paradoxical desire for repression and self-destruction. Focusing on the troublesome, embodied encounter with the miry material, the article argues that the drainage produced a desire for the repressive order that the fascist ideal of a healthy and fertile nature presented. The article further argues that the drainage of human bodies turned the population into productive microchannels for the materialization of fascist autarchy that, in turn, proved self-destructive. The paper concludes by drawing parallels between the swampy nature in the Pontine Marshes and the Anthropocene epoch in which extreme right actors, such as the French National Rally party, are beginning to recognize climate change, and to present solutions that could intensify microfascist tendencies. 

Keywords: Microfascism, the Pontine Marshes, land reclamation, the Anthropocene, swamps

Niklas Olsen: The Response of Climate Economics to Global Warming: William Nordhaus and the Belief in Technological Solutions

The article analyzes the ideational universe underpinning William Nordhaus’s climate economic analyzes by elucidating his work from the early 1970s, when he began to address the crises of nature, until the beginning of the 1990s, when he formalized his models regarding the appropriate relationship between economic growth and global warming. The article argues that Nordhaus’s climate economy is characterized by a promethean understanding of the environment, which nurtures an unlimited trust in the ability of human being to overcome societal problems – including environmental challenges - through economic growth, human ingenuity, and technological innovation.

Keywords: Climate economics, market economy, growth, technology, prometheanism

Manni Crone: French degrowth philosophy: A radical utopia in the age of environmental crises

In an era when climate and environmental crises threaten the survival of the planet, ideas about degrowth have suddenly gained momentum. Degrowth is primarily an economic concept that revolves around reducing growth in terms of GDP and consumption. However, when the concept emerged in France in the 1970s as “décroissance,” it was part of a much broader utopian critique that was not only about scaling down but also about imagining entirely different societies and ways of living. This article focuses on this (partially forgotten) French degrowth philosophy as a utopia aiming to “decolonize our imagination”. Drawing on contemporary thinkers such as Serge Latouche, Pierre Rabhi, and Alain de Benoist, who come from the far right as well as the far left, the article discusses the thematic breadth that characterizes French degrowth. It is not only concerned with reducing growth but much broader about our understandings of technology, agriculture, work, leisure, nature, democracy, and ways of being together. Based on key themes in current French degrowth literature, the article traces connections back to the thinkers of the 1970s, whom contemporary degrowth debates explicitly draw upon and refer to, including Cornelius Castoriadis, Ivan Illich, and Murray Bookchin.

Keywords: Degrowth, growth, mastery of nature, conviviality, oasis

Mads Ejsing, Niklas Olsen og Stefan Gaarsmand Jakobsen: An intellectual history of climate politics in Denmark: Ecological modernisation, social movements, and relative inaction since the 1990s

This article examines the development of Danish climate policy since the late 1980s through a contextual intellectual history analysis. Four key climate policy ideas are highlighted: sustainable development, climate scepticism, ecological modernization, and climate justice. The article argues that for most of the period, Danish climate policy has been dominated by ideas of ecological modernization and continued economic growth. Although there have been shorter periods of increased momentum and popular mobilization, such as COP15 in 2009 and the climate election in 2019, the development can be described as one of relative stability. However, a new generation of activist social movements and other green actors have recently brought a renewed focus on issues of climate justice and critiques of economic growth as central themes in the continued development of Danish climate policy.

Keywords: Climate policy, ecological modernization, climate justice, social movements, sustainable development

Niels Wilde: Necrofauna: On the Resurrection of Species

In this article, I focus on the different ways "the ghost” has been used in academic discourses on extinction both as a metaphor and a concept. I begin by providing a rough overview of the history of the concept of extinction and then explore its emergence and usage in this line of development with a specific focus on Derrida’s hauntology. This mapping provides the background for a discussion of the science of de-extinction where extinct species are brought back, a phenomenon known as necrofauna. I try to show how the vision to resurrect species reinforces the mechanisms that caused extinction to begin with rather than opposes them. Despite the ambition of bringing back lost species and hence making up for the shadows of the past, resurrection biology risks reproducing the very logic of capitalism by manipulating and controlling nature through and unintended commodification process.

Keywords: Extinction, de-extinction, haunting, ghosts, capitalism