How to Blow Up Climate Despair

Benjamin McKean, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University

Abstract: Is hope a prerequisite to political action against climate catastrophe? Is despair of making no difference a major obstacle to such action? At one pole, philosophers including Catriona McKinnon and ecologists like Andreas Malm argue that the efficacy of individual action must be demonstrated to thwart despair. At the other pole, philosophers like Allen Thompson draw from Jonathan Lear’s conception of “radical hope” to argue that there is reason to be hopeful about a future beyond our present understanding.
   In this talk, Dr. McKean will evaluate these strategies and argue that their shortcomings point to the need for a different approach. The “efficacy” approach has two important flaws. First, it doesn’t engage effectively with the contemporary political context, in which few people have experience of political efficacy. Second, the efficacy framework lacks an adequate moral psychology, which Dr. McKean will show through an analysis of Malm’s critique of pacifism.
   The “radical hope” approach likewise faces two problems. First, as Dr. McKean will show through a reading of Lear’s critique of Sitting Bull, the “radical hope” approach lacks sufficient resources for making political judgments. Second, radical hope is predicated on the idea that the world is of such abundant goodness that future people will find new instantiations of what people find good today. But climate despair concerns the apparent inability to transition out of the present rather than the inability to imagine a good future. Dr. McKean will conclude by arguing for a more present-oriented approach to motivation. 

Carnegie Mellon University Philosophy Colloquium