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Unendliches Wachstum? Nietzsche lesen im Anthropozän

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Nietzsches Naturen
This chapter is in the book Nietzsches Naturen

Abstract

Infinite Growth? Reading Nietzsche in the Anthropocene. This article shows how Nietzsche’s philosophy can be related to the current debates on growth critique and degrowth. With Nietzsche, the ambivalence in the modern concept of growth is discussed. On the one hand, the idea of growth is deeply entangled in the ecologically fatal compulsion to increase economic productivity and resource exploitation; on the other hand, growth stands for an unfolding of individual and social possibilities. The hypothesis of this paper is that by engaging with Nietzsche we can better understand how the growth imperative shapes our way of life, what its affective power is, and what alternatives might be conceivable. Finally, the affinity of Nietzsche’s thought with the political ecology of Bruno Latour is discussed.

Abstract

Infinite Growth? Reading Nietzsche in the Anthropocene. This article shows how Nietzsche’s philosophy can be related to the current debates on growth critique and degrowth. With Nietzsche, the ambivalence in the modern concept of growth is discussed. On the one hand, the idea of growth is deeply entangled in the ecologically fatal compulsion to increase economic productivity and resource exploitation; on the other hand, growth stands for an unfolding of individual and social possibilities. The hypothesis of this paper is that by engaging with Nietzsche we can better understand how the growth imperative shapes our way of life, what its affective power is, and what alternatives might be conceivable. Finally, the affinity of Nietzsche’s thought with the political ecology of Bruno Latour is discussed.

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