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In this book, Ondrej Beran explores the various emotions that arise in response to the perceived and observed climate crisis. He provides a focused philosophical overview of ecological emotions (mostly negative ones, such as grief) and reflects on some of their characteristics. He also addresses the nature of their interconnection, and their status as potentially lucid and justified recognitions of a compromised value. In general, Beran s interest is in thinking of these emotions as peculiar forms of understanding, and in exploring what these forms of understanding show us about living in a world that we see as seriously damaged or under serious risk. He argues that these forms of understanding are cultivated and expressed in various ways and can take very diverse, even idiosyncratic shapes. Ultimately, he highlights the important role played by the reflective distance in many of our emotional responses to the climate crisis, as they also incorporate and shape how we understand our individual lives. Special attention is paid here to light-heartedly pessimistic takes on one life, in relation to the climate crisis, and to a critical reflection of the problematic aspects of this reflection, especially its enabling conditions (which would represent natural openings for further discussions, whether post-colonial, Marxist, feminist, or general political critiques).
The book is, methodologically, seated primarily in the tradition of post-Wittgensteinian philosophy (ethics), building upon previous theoretical work on examples in philosophy. But it relies on other resources as well: cognitivist approaches to emotion (Solomon, Nussbaum, Rorty), existential phenomenology (Ratcliffe), or Adornoian dialectics.
List of contents
Part 1: OPENINGS.- Ch 1: A Case of Grief.- Ch 2: A Case of Anxiety.- Ch 3: A Case of Anger.- Ch 4: A Belated Intro: Chapter Outline.- Part 2: EMOTIONS.- Ch 5: The Multiplicity of Responses to the Environment.- Ch 6: Enters ECEGADMAT : Complications and Comparisons.- Ch 7: On the Family Resemblance.- Ch 8: What (Ecological) Emotions Are.- Ch 9: Case Study: Should We Have Children?.- Part 3: THE EXISTENTIAL.- Ch 10: The Mental and the Existential.- Ch 11: Forms of Response.- Ch 12: Guilt, Shame and Remorse.- Ch 13: Hope.- Ch 14: The Life of Understanding.- Ch 15: Ecological Emotions and the Arts.- Ch 16: Notion, Feeling, Perception, Attitude, Action.- Part 4: THE FUTURE ERODED.- Ch 17: A Light-Hearted Pessimism.- Ch 18: Friendship.- Ch 19: Despair and Privilege.- Ch 20: An Attempt at a Phenomenology of (the Cynicism of our Phenomenology of our) Cynicism: The Unhelpfulness of Philosophy.- Ch 21: Uncritical Models : The Importance of Being Ridiculous.
About the author
Ond¿ej Beran is a Docent (Associate Professor) in Philosophy and one of the Heads of Research at the Centre for Ethics at the University of Pardubice. His recent major works include
The Philosophy of Environmental Emotions (co-edited with L. Candiotto, N. Forsberg, A. Fredriksson and D. Rozen, 2024),
Examples and Their Role in Our Thinking (2021), and
Ethical Inquiries after Wittgenstein (co-edited with S. Aldrin Salskov and N. Hämäläinen, 2022).
Summary
In this book, Ondřej Beran explores the various emotions that arise in response to the perceived and observed climate crisis. He provides a focused philosophical overview of ecological emotions (mostly negative ones, such as grief) and reflects on some of their characteristics. He also addresses the nature of their interconnection, and their status as potentially lucid and justified recognitions of a compromised value. In general, Beran’s interest is in thinking of these emotions as peculiar forms of understanding, and in exploring what these forms of understanding show us about living in a world that we see as seriously damaged or under serious risk. He argues that these forms of understanding are cultivated and expressed in various ways and can take very diverse, even idiosyncratic shapes. Ultimately, he highlights the important role played by the reflective distance in many of our emotional responses to the climate crisis, as they also incorporate and shape how we understand our individual lives. Special attention is paid here to “light-heartedly pessimistic” takes on one life, in relation to the climate crisis, and to a critical reflection of the problematic aspects of this reflection, especially its enabling conditions (which would represent natural openings for further discussions, whether post-colonial, Marxist, feminist, or general political critiques).
The book is, methodologically, seated primarily in the tradition of post-Wittgensteinian philosophy (ethics), building upon previous theoretical work on examples in philosophy. But it relies on other resources as well: cognitivist approaches to emotion (Solomon, Nussbaum, Rorty), existential phenomenology (Ratcliffe), or Adornoian dialectics.
