Malfeasance : appropriation through pollution /
Serres, Michel,
Malfeasance : appropriation through pollution / Michel Serres ; translated by Anne-Marie Feenberg-Dibon. - 89 pages ; 19 cm
"Original edition: Le mal propre : polluer pour s'approprier? Éditions Le Pommier--Paris, 2008.".
Urine, manure, blood, sperm : the lived foundations of property right -- Garbage, images, sounds : matter and signs.
In this highly original and provocative book, Michel Serres reflects on the relation between nature and culture and analyzes the origins of the world's contemporary environmental problems. He does so through the surprising proposition that our cleanliness is our dirt. While all living beings pollute to lay claim to their habitat, humans have multiplied pollution's effects catastrophically since the Industrial Revolution through the economic system's mode of appropriation and its emphasis on mindless growth. He warns that while we can measure what he calls "hard pollution"--the poisoning of the Earth--we ignore at our peril the disastrous impact of the "soft pollution" created by sound and images on our psyches. Sounding the alarm that the planet is heading for disaster, Serres proposes that humanity should stop trying to "own" the world and become "renters." Building on his earlier work, especially that on hominization, he urges us to establish a "natural contract" with nature. -- Book Description.
0804773025 9780804773027 0804773033 9780804773034
Pollution--Social aspects
Pollution--Philosophy
Human ecology--Philosophy
Human territoriality--Philosophy
Property--Philosophy
TD177 / .S4713 2011
304.28
Malfeasance : appropriation through pollution / Michel Serres ; translated by Anne-Marie Feenberg-Dibon. - 89 pages ; 19 cm
"Original edition: Le mal propre : polluer pour s'approprier? Éditions Le Pommier--Paris, 2008.".
Urine, manure, blood, sperm : the lived foundations of property right -- Garbage, images, sounds : matter and signs.
In this highly original and provocative book, Michel Serres reflects on the relation between nature and culture and analyzes the origins of the world's contemporary environmental problems. He does so through the surprising proposition that our cleanliness is our dirt. While all living beings pollute to lay claim to their habitat, humans have multiplied pollution's effects catastrophically since the Industrial Revolution through the economic system's mode of appropriation and its emphasis on mindless growth. He warns that while we can measure what he calls "hard pollution"--the poisoning of the Earth--we ignore at our peril the disastrous impact of the "soft pollution" created by sound and images on our psyches. Sounding the alarm that the planet is heading for disaster, Serres proposes that humanity should stop trying to "own" the world and become "renters." Building on his earlier work, especially that on hominization, he urges us to establish a "natural contract" with nature. -- Book Description.
0804773025 9780804773027 0804773033 9780804773034
Pollution--Social aspects
Pollution--Philosophy
Human ecology--Philosophy
Human territoriality--Philosophy
Property--Philosophy
TD177 / .S4713 2011
304.28