The Cosmopolitical Applications of the "Spiritual" in Animist Cultures and Their Relevance to the Environmental Humanities Today
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23 décembre 2021
- handle: 10670/1.sxtyzm
- hal: hal-04380457
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/ , info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Mots-clés
spirituality and the Anthropocene spirituality and environmental humanities the spiritual and cosmopolitics Bruno Latour animist being-in-the-world animism and technologySujets proches
Spiritual-mindedness People Man Humanity (Human beings) Human race Mankind Homo sapiens Humankind HumansCiter ce document
Fionn Bennett, « The Cosmopolitical Applications of the "Spiritual" in Animist Cultures and Their Relevance to the Environmental Humanities Today », HAL-SHS : linguistique, ID : 10670/1.sxtyzm
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Through a critical reading of Bruno Latour's "cosmopolitics," this paper maintains that the "animist" acceptation of "the spiritual" can be repurposed into a valuable mediating resource between humankind and the beleaguered planet we live upon. By adopting a "consequentialist standpoint" it assesses the "instrumental value" of the spiritual as a means to foster improved Man-Nature relations. In this assessment I focus on the way "animist cultures" tend to regard the natural environment as sentient and "besouled" and the way this inclines them to avoid abusing their fellow creatures. I also consider how they interacted with their environment for productivistic and consumeristic purposes while simultaneously venerating it. Finally, I show how animists submit both humankind and its nonhuman Other to a "cosmodicy" which constrains both to relate to and interact with one other on an "I-Thou" basis, thereby facilitating dialogue and an "entente cordiale" between humanity and nature.