Chapter

The Degrowth of Philosophy

Toward a Generic Ecology

EXCERPT

Ecological Times

Take a programme entitled ‘Struggle and Utopia at the Endtimes of Philosophy’. An anti-Hegelian formula,
obviously: all thought is not determined by the philosophy that is supposed to give meaning to history. It speaks of the ‘endtimes’, not of the end of philosophy (a still-philosophical, intra-historical event). ‘The endtimes’ is an eschatological formula, and the context is that of humanity of-the-last-instance. Such is the new usage—of struggle and of utopia, and of philosophy at last brought within the reach of humans. What function could philosophy still perform in the epoch of ecological distress, an epoch wherein ecological finitude replaces metaphysical finitude?…