"For A Free Nature"
By Javier Sethness-Castro
08 October, 2011
Countercurrents.org
Javier Sethness-Castro's address to the 2011 Marcuse Society Critical Refusals Conference. It is a presentation of and set of reflections on the paper "Critical Theory, Social Ecology, and Post-Developmentalism: Towards a Free Nature,'" written in 2008. Herein Sethness examine the insights of the early Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School—the work of Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, and Max Horkheimer—and of Murray Bookchin’s social ecology with regard to humanity’s relationship with external nature and with itself. He attempts to synthesize these similar schools of thought in the first part and conclude, with these theorists, that the human domination of external nature, like the domination of humans by other humans, must be done away with if humanity is to enjoy an existence liberated from the profound social and environmental predicaments it currently faces and likely will continue to face if matters are not made radically otherwise. He also explores the post-developmentalist critique of conventional development theory and practice and attempt to synthesize this with the Critical Theory-social ecology hybrid of the first half before concluding by examining the prospects for the realization of the realities for which these theorists hope in light of the nature of the existent and particularly the ever-worsening environmental crisis.
Javier Sethness-Castro is a translator, libertarian socialist, and rights-advocate. He writes on climate change and other issues at http://intlibecosoc.wordpress.com; his first book, Imperiled Life: Revolution against Climate Catastrophe, is forthcoming from AK Press.
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