This seminar is part of the monthly RCPS Lecture Series hosted by the Radboud Center for Philosophy and Society.
Please note, that should you have a cold or other illness symptoms, or have had such symptoms in the preceding 4 to 5 days, you are kindly requested to either attend online or wear an FFP2 mask during the meeting, which will be provided on location.
Registration
Students and staff are warmly invited to join the event. No registration is required.
Speaker
Abstract - Outline of a Planetary Aesthetics
In this talk, I would like to present the outlines of an aesthetic theory of the planetary (or, a planetary aesthetics). Such a theory is grounded in the conviction that a renewed sensibility for planetary life and an expanded imagination of how the planet may (and perhaps should) be inhabited are both urgently needed and already emerging. Drawing on critical theory (especially Marcuse, Adorno, and Davis), the paper understands aesthetic theory not merely as formal analysis but as materially engaged with aesthetic works—in this case works of speculative fiction—that reflect and shape the imagination of the planet/planets and of the planetary entanglements of life.
After sketching my take on the role of aesthetic theory, I will offer a conceptual distinction within the notion of “the planetary”, namely between “the planetary object” (i.e., the planet) and “the planetary nexus”. “The planet/planetary object” refers to the object in space that humans inhabit alongside other species, an entity whose internal vastness and deep temporal dimensions ultimately exceed human comprehension. “The planetary,” by contrast, designates the open, relational totality of living dynamics of which humans are a constitutive part. While both the planetary object and the planetary nexus resist totalizing knowledge, they are not closed to a sensibility which acknowledges their opacity and still feeds the imagination of planetary life. Thus, I want to challenge the claim that contemporary planetary crises entail a crisis of the imagination, arguing instead that aesthetic imagination exceeds such epistemic limits. Through the analysis of works of speculative fiction, I try to highlight in my work aesthetic devices such as estrangement, subjunctivity, and speculative world-building as crucial for fostering a planetary sensibility. For my talk, I will focus on the story “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow” by Ursula K. Le Guin, but also point to other stories (for instance by Hao Jingfang and Vandana Singh) which exemplify a productive dialectic of identification and estrangement that respects planetary opacity while enhancing awareness of eco-geological interconnectedness.
Overall, I am advocating for the reintegration of speculative imagination into aesthetic, social and political theory and propose a philosophical stance that embraces unknowability as the very basis for imaginative inquires into ways of inhabiting the planet and critical conjectures about the planetary nexus.