Jay Bernstein | Earth Justice: Emergency Ethics in the Age of Climate Catastrophe | Philosophy Speaker Series

Abstract: In the 21st Century, all foundational political philosophy, all theories of social justice must simultaneously address climate change and the ongoing destruction of the environment. In this paper, I argue that late capitalism, fossil fuel capitalism is a global ecocidal practice. By ecocide is meant the destruction of Holocene normative nature. The worst consequences of ecocidal practice are visited upon the most vulnerable citizens of the Global South. Capitalism is thus a slow genocidal ecocide. To acknowledge this formation of moral harm and offense entails that an ecocide convention must become the foundational ethical norm for a post-capitalist form of life. An ecocide convention would be the Grundnorm, the basic norm, for international law and governance.

Jay Bernstein is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research.

This lecture is a co-presentation with Le groupe de recherche interuniversitaire sur la normativité (GRIN).