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Dump Philosophy: A Phenomenology of Devastation
Ranging across philosophy, theology, ecology, psychology, and art, in Dump Philosophy Michael Marder argues that the earth, along with everything that lives and thinks on it, is at an advanced stage of being converted into a dump for industrial output and its by-products feeding consumerism and its excesses.
Every day, scientific studies, media reports, and first-hand accounts of the rapidly deteriorating state of the environment hit us with a growing and disconcerting force. Trends such as microplastics in water, airborne toxins, topsoil degradation, and dangerous levels of carbon dioxide have upset the delicate ecological balance that has until now been sustaining life on the planet.
Marder's original treatise paints a portrait of the Anthropocene as a global dump which wreaks havoc, causing disease and degrading our sensation, perception, and thinking, so that nuance is lost and ideas are reduced to soundbites in chains of free association. Describing the dump's fundamental characteristics and its effects on the body and the mind, he contemplates wider physiological, social, economic, and environmental metabolisms in the age of dumping, as well as the role of philosophy caught in its crosshairs. While surveying the devastation that is the reality of the twenty-first century, the book provides a frightening and yet intellectually spellbinding glimpse of the future.
Every day, scientific studies, media reports, and first-hand accounts of the rapidly deteriorating state of the environment hit us with a growing and disconcerting force. Trends such as microplastics in water, airborne toxins, topsoil degradation, and dangerous levels of carbon dioxide have upset the delicate ecological balance that has until now been sustaining life on the planet.
Marder's original treatise paints a portrait of the Anthropocene as a global dump which wreaks havoc, causing disease and degrading our sensation, perception, and thinking, so that nuance is lost and ideas are reduced to soundbites in chains of free association. Describing the dump's fundamental characteristics and its effects on the body and the mind, he contemplates wider physiological, social, economic, and environmental metabolisms in the age of dumping, as well as the role of philosophy caught in its crosshairs. While surveying the devastation that is the reality of the twenty-first century, the book provides a frightening and yet intellectually spellbinding glimpse of the future.
184 pages, Paperback
Published December 10, 2020
About the author
Michael Marder
84 books32 followersMichael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. An author of seven books and over 100 articles, he is a specialist in phenomenology, political thought, and environmental philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 18, 2022
A sad but convincing argument that it is not only the environment that humans are turning into a dump, but also ourselves – beyond ruining resources for sustenance, in the phenomenological (directly experienced, entangled) sense of scrambling and trashing our senses and relationships, inner and social lives on a universal scale.
The source? “The entire history of metaphysics", which "is that of spirit trashing matter, dumping matter, and thinking that matter is a dump.” (p. 28) Any viable solutions require admitting the full state rather than narrow fixes to isolated environmental problems. In short, felt like another case for working around the paradigm level (as in Donella Meadows' system leverage points), and there are more nuanced ideas about this in the book that I struggle to recap outside of the context of Marder's vision and language structures.
I was enchanted by many metaphors and passages, such as: “We are undergoing a period of colossal displacement: metaphysical indigestibility moves from the innards of thought to the world in the guise of products that obliquely and diabolically realize the dreams of immutability, of liberation from temporal inexorability. (..) Cleansing is cut from the same cloth as pollution: on a practical level, the chemicals used to clean our homes and offices poison the earth; on a theoretical level, the foremost factor in environmental contamination is squeaky clean, pure being isolated from nothing and immune to the metamorphoses of becoming. It is in the name of what is supposed to remain eternally virginal, untouchable, and incorruptible that the world is converted into a litter box." (p. 93)*
However, the book is otherwise a tough read for someone like me with no background in philosophy and its history. On one hand, I wish the ideas were made more accessible (for wicked old consumption again, yes); on the other, several already circulate in different packaging, so Marder's can be left to sing to its intended audience. And may we succeed in moving from the dump to fertile compost.**
* Note to self: this is a good connection to Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times.
** Another connection, more to the book's artistic streak: "101 ways to avoid dealing with shit" from Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures.
The source? “The entire history of metaphysics", which "is that of spirit trashing matter, dumping matter, and thinking that matter is a dump.” (p. 28) Any viable solutions require admitting the full state rather than narrow fixes to isolated environmental problems. In short, felt like another case for working around the paradigm level (as in Donella Meadows' system leverage points), and there are more nuanced ideas about this in the book that I struggle to recap outside of the context of Marder's vision and language structures.
I was enchanted by many metaphors and passages, such as: “We are undergoing a period of colossal displacement: metaphysical indigestibility moves from the innards of thought to the world in the guise of products that obliquely and diabolically realize the dreams of immutability, of liberation from temporal inexorability. (..) Cleansing is cut from the same cloth as pollution: on a practical level, the chemicals used to clean our homes and offices poison the earth; on a theoretical level, the foremost factor in environmental contamination is squeaky clean, pure being isolated from nothing and immune to the metamorphoses of becoming. It is in the name of what is supposed to remain eternally virginal, untouchable, and incorruptible that the world is converted into a litter box." (p. 93)*
However, the book is otherwise a tough read for someone like me with no background in philosophy and its history. On one hand, I wish the ideas were made more accessible (for wicked old consumption again, yes); on the other, several already circulate in different packaging, so Marder's can be left to sing to its intended audience. And may we succeed in moving from the dump to fertile compost.**
* Note to self: this is a good connection to Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times.
** Another connection, more to the book's artistic streak: "101 ways to avoid dealing with shit" from Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures.
December 3, 2021
A lucid account of the devastation of our era. Phenomenology here must not be intended in Husserl's, but in Hegel's sense. I appreciate Marder's analysis, even if my view on phenomenology is definitely different, just as possibile solutions I would suggest.
July 5, 2022
Sweet irony: Marder needs you to stop wasting money on stuff you don't need. Better yet, pay more taxes, because he has many nieces and nephews ready to live the good life on your money, just like the published uncle.
March 13, 2023
Erg fascinerend en inspirerend, maar bij vlagen ook erg opaak en moeilijk te begrijpen. Marder is een bijzonder denker met een imponerende hoeveelheid kennis. Dit werk doet verlangen naar meer.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews