Modernity and the Ecological Crisis: Why We Can’t Help but Destroy the World

Throughout the span of human history, no period has ever alienated humankind from the natural world as much as the modern era. In it, the advent of scientific discovery, the Industrial Revolution, and technological advancement have achieved a dual effect—one that simultaneously furthered the cause of human progress while accelerating the rate of planetary destruction. While these material conditions have certainly deepened the rift between humanity and nature, the origin of this division precedes our desire to consume the planet of its resources and returns to a fundamental belief that modern humans are morally, physically, and spiritually detached from their natural environment.

In this course, students will learn to identify the material, social, and philosophical processes that define Modernity and how they continue to contribute to the worsening condition of the ecological crisis. Using a multidisciplinary approach, this course will call into question the very assumptions that underpin Modernity’s conception of nature as an objective domain with no intrinsic meaning or value beyond its exploitation, and demonstrate the inevitable destruction that such a worldview inflicts upon the world. While the course does aim to deconstruct the essence of the modernist project, students will also be given the opportunity to discover and explore the wide array of methods proposed by a variety of scholars to conceptualize and realize the possibility of a different world(s).