Theory of the Earth / Thomas Nail.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nail, Thomas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Geology--Philosophy.

Geology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (348 pages)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2021]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Introduction

PART I: GEOKINETICS: THE KINETIC EARTH

1 The Flow of Matter

2 The Fold of Elements

3 The Planetary Field

PART II HISTORY OF THE EARTH

4 Centripetal Minerality

5 Hadean Earth

6 Centrifugal Atmospherics

7 Archean Earth I: Pneumatology

8 Archean Earth II: Biogenesis

9 Tensional Vegetality

10 Proterozoic Earth

11 Elastic Animality

12 Phanerozoic Earth I: Kinomorphology

13 Phanerozoic Earth II Terrestrialization

PART III THE KINOCENE: A DYING EARTH

14 Kinocene Earth

15 Kinocene Ethics

Conclusion The Future

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503627567

150362756X

OCLC:

1248759424