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Noir Materialism: Freedom and Obligation in Political Ecology
In Noir Freedom and Obligation in Political Ecology, Michael Uhall reengineers the conceptual relationship between nature and politics by crafting the terms of a new philosophy of nature and exploring its consequences for political theory. These consequences include major theoretical reformulations of indispensable political ideas, including freedom, obligation, and the subject. These ideas need to be retooled because the ecological crisis devastating our planet is, at root, a political crisis, deeply inflected by the concepts used to help navigate decisional and material environments. Noir Materialism stages pivotal encounters with Hannah Arendt, Roberto Esposito, and F. W. J. Schelling, as well as engaging critically with biopolitics, environmental political thought, new materialism, the ontological turn in anthropology, and, surprisingly, film noir. Ultimately, Noir Materialism argues that only a return to the nightside of nature can address the conceptual gridlock impeding attempts to register and respond to the ecological crisis.
190 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2024
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July 11, 2024
This was to me a fascinating read from the first to the final page.
The book's central subject is about the question 'what is nature?', or how we can conceptualize it in a sensible way, and how humans relate to it, how our current times of climate change and ecological destruction calls for a a different relation to nature in ecological terms. Uhall formulates an imperative for that purpose.
There is much to learn reading this book. I learned about antique philosophers to modern and contemporary ones, in the quite still new and evolving context of political ecology. I think the knowledge Uhall works out in his book makes a great philosophical contribution to questions in political ecology. He makes sensible use of Esposito's work on community and 'immunitas' to put forward the concept of 'econormativity'.
Uhall critizes and cautions the reader of certain responses to nature that are psychologically ill-suited and suggests different responses in place of it. I think this is very useful and highly important, I have already been able to practice it.
I read the book uncritically as Nietzsche advices in one of his aphorisms, to get to the soul of the book. Restrictions can come afterwards, but it's hard to think of one. One objection though I have is that it doesn't take into account hard science. In his short discussion of metabolism, he doesn't account for the biogeochemical cycles of the Earth systems or of the soil, while from a science perspective this is very important and it is important in the discussion of biodiversity conservation and climate change (forget this if you plan to read the book, in order to get to it's soul).
But this is a philosophy book and it's a gem. I should reread the book to get more out of it (in particular the chapter 'Companion ecologies: a new theory of the subject' which was somewhat hard to digest). I very much like that the book is entitled 'Noir Materialism' and not 'dark materialism'. It gives a human twist to what otherwise is a rather cold concept of reality (although Thomas Nail, a hard-core "materialist", connects materialism with 'movement' which is also a highly fruitful approach). If it works well for the imagination, it's good in my opinion. If it associates us to reality instead of disassociating it, why shouldn't it be true or valid? Uhall also uses the term 'dark materialism', which he treats as well, but there is no contradiction with the notion of 'noir materialism', on the contrary (both are treated in his discussion of Schelling and respectively 'film noir'). This humanity is also reflected by the importance Uhall gives to affections, which is crucial in learning to have a healthy relation with the world-scale problems of climate change and ecological destruction and which is needed for us to respond to our individual and collective obligations towards nature ('econormativity'). And it is moreover reflected by the insight, discussed in the book, that nature has given us existence and freedom.
Inspired by 'Noir Materialism', I tried to read a book on political ecology, entitled 'Discovering Political Ecology'. But it's a textbook and I get tired of it. 'Noir Materialism' is a philosophy book, it might be academic as well, but, speaking for myself, I pretty much like these kind of academic phllosophy books (of course one must select among them). Not dry at all. Fascinating, highly relevant, sparkling, energizing and fullfilling.
This book has encouraged me to read more books on 'ecological philosophy' informing 'ecological living'. The reader of this review might be interested if (s)he wants to seek further. Arne Naess' 'Life's Philosophy: Reason and Feeling in a Deeper World', Freya Mathews' 'The Ecological Self' (a book on physics and metaphysics) and Thomas Nail's 'Theory of the Earth' are my picks. But we need science as well. We need both affect and knowledge, the heart and the head (bridging the gap between them as advocated by Naess and Nietzsche or be able to live the life of the heart, 'life's task' according to Dostojevski), we need both philosophy and science, which are both in their own ways also matters of the heart and the head (we need history too, art, and many more things).
The book's central subject is about the question 'what is nature?', or how we can conceptualize it in a sensible way, and how humans relate to it, how our current times of climate change and ecological destruction calls for a a different relation to nature in ecological terms. Uhall formulates an imperative for that purpose.
There is much to learn reading this book. I learned about antique philosophers to modern and contemporary ones, in the quite still new and evolving context of political ecology. I think the knowledge Uhall works out in his book makes a great philosophical contribution to questions in political ecology. He makes sensible use of Esposito's work on community and 'immunitas' to put forward the concept of 'econormativity'.
Uhall critizes and cautions the reader of certain responses to nature that are psychologically ill-suited and suggests different responses in place of it. I think this is very useful and highly important, I have already been able to practice it.
I read the book uncritically as Nietzsche advices in one of his aphorisms, to get to the soul of the book. Restrictions can come afterwards, but it's hard to think of one. One objection though I have is that it doesn't take into account hard science. In his short discussion of metabolism, he doesn't account for the biogeochemical cycles of the Earth systems or of the soil, while from a science perspective this is very important and it is important in the discussion of biodiversity conservation and climate change (forget this if you plan to read the book, in order to get to it's soul).
But this is a philosophy book and it's a gem. I should reread the book to get more out of it (in particular the chapter 'Companion ecologies: a new theory of the subject' which was somewhat hard to digest). I very much like that the book is entitled 'Noir Materialism' and not 'dark materialism'. It gives a human twist to what otherwise is a rather cold concept of reality (although Thomas Nail, a hard-core "materialist", connects materialism with 'movement' which is also a highly fruitful approach). If it works well for the imagination, it's good in my opinion. If it associates us to reality instead of disassociating it, why shouldn't it be true or valid? Uhall also uses the term 'dark materialism', which he treats as well, but there is no contradiction with the notion of 'noir materialism', on the contrary (both are treated in his discussion of Schelling and respectively 'film noir'). This humanity is also reflected by the importance Uhall gives to affections, which is crucial in learning to have a healthy relation with the world-scale problems of climate change and ecological destruction and which is needed for us to respond to our individual and collective obligations towards nature ('econormativity'). And it is moreover reflected by the insight, discussed in the book, that nature has given us existence and freedom.
Inspired by 'Noir Materialism', I tried to read a book on political ecology, entitled 'Discovering Political Ecology'. But it's a textbook and I get tired of it. 'Noir Materialism' is a philosophy book, it might be academic as well, but, speaking for myself, I pretty much like these kind of academic phllosophy books (of course one must select among them). Not dry at all. Fascinating, highly relevant, sparkling, energizing and fullfilling.
This book has encouraged me to read more books on 'ecological philosophy' informing 'ecological living'. The reader of this review might be interested if (s)he wants to seek further. Arne Naess' 'Life's Philosophy: Reason and Feeling in a Deeper World', Freya Mathews' 'The Ecological Self' (a book on physics and metaphysics) and Thomas Nail's 'Theory of the Earth' are my picks. But we need science as well. We need both affect and knowledge, the heart and the head (bridging the gap between them as advocated by Naess and Nietzsche or be able to live the life of the heart, 'life's task' according to Dostojevski), we need both philosophy and science, which are both in their own ways also matters of the heart and the head (we need history too, art, and many more things).
Displaying 1 of 1 review