
Theory of the Earth
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Narrated by:
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Doug McDonald
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By:
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Thomas Nail
About this listen
We need a new philosophy of the earth. Geological time used to refer to slow and gradual processes, but today we are watching land sink into the sea and forests transform into deserts. We can even see the creation of new geological strata made of plastic, chicken bones, and other waste that could remain in the fossil record for millennia or longer.
Crafting a philosophy of geology that rewrites natural and human history from the broader perspective of movement, Thomas Nail provides a new materialist, kinetic ethics of the earth that speaks to this moment. Climate change and other ecological disruptions challenge us to reconsider the deep history of minerals, atmosphere, plants, and animals and to take a more process-oriented perspective that sees humanity as part of the larger cosmic and terrestrial drama of mobility and flow. Building on his earlier work on the philosophy of movement, Nail argues that we should shift our biocentric emphasis from conservation to expenditure, flux, and planetary diversity. Theory of the Earth urges us to rethink our ethical relationship to one another, the planet, and the cosmos at large.
The book is published by Stanford University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
©2021 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (P)2021 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"One of the most remarkable books I've read in some time." (Claire Colebrook, Pennsylvania State University)
"A much-needed, and previously underrepresented philosophy of geology." (Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University)
"A fascinating, difficult, needed scientifico-philosophical document, Theory of the Earth should interest and irritate scientists...." (Dorion Sagan, author of Cosmic Apprentice: Dispatches from the Edges of Science)