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    1 Latour, The Fourth Lecture The Anthropocene and The Destruction of The Image of The Globe

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    110 Third Lecture thant duogero uhnpneghion cotta bees Sounding These fdlh oo tre proces of ing estat ny css how cpl od the taps of antvopomorpin fii re at we ae nga torah hea eRe! FOURTH LECTURE The Anthropocene and the destruction of (the image of) the Globe ‘The Antheopocene: an innovation « Mente et Malleo« A deba ale term for an uncertain epoch * An ideal opportu to fsoggegate the figures of Man and Nature» Send o theological origin of the image of the Sphere * Confuson between Science and che Globe + Tyerll aginst Lovelock, Feedback lops donot deaw a Glebe « Ena efferent pei [_ fine of composition * Melachotia, or the endo the Clbe 4 suppose that not too many of ws were waiting inpatcaly, ding the frst six months of 2012, for the conclosions ofthe 34th International Geological Conguess that was to ake place in Brsbose tring the summer. I confess that before then Thad or been ih the habit of following the work ofthis eminent academe boul ~ even though their somewhat Nietrschean motto Mente et Malco (Bp Thought and Hammer) would have suited my own proesion very well If pad attention in 2012, i ws borane, tke Peryons le T wos eager fora clear decision about the epoch ia which wear Heiog from the International Commission on Stratigraphy, om mote pe sisely the Subcommission on Quatemaey Stretigtaphy, a working ‘roup headed by Dr Jan Zalasiewice of te University of Loess Defining 2 historical epoch, and doing 30 offal, oo small smattec! Were they going to decace tht the Farch had oelly 12 Fourth Lecture cmcered ino new epoch, of 20 And if he answer was yes what Aas the precise dae of entry? The stakes are enormous forthe fst time in geahisoy, someone was going ro make the solemn declare fiom that the mort imporcentforee shaping the Earth was that of Fumanty talon a bole ond a a single amit Hence te name ro posed, the Anthropocene (exe for “new,” anthropos for “aman. ‘Fhe Zetgestdeterioed by a subcornmission? You ee why found the suspense unbearable ‘As Twas expecting something solemn, was a litle disappointed wen I ead the summary fepotton the Brisbane meeting: The Aeron cate Hi cosine! bythe Working Gay m9 serena pole spoch Ls tthe soe ere oy he Rear sd [ite spc wih eae hve Guar ee ba thet Helen sommes “Potential” is’ very decisive. On the other hand, to declare that wwe are o longer living in the Helocene is more radial, since that teen procely darag these leven thousnd years of eatve sibling berween ewo glaciation thar human beings, or, nore accursty, ch lzatioas, have been able ro develop As fog as we emained inthe Holocene, the Earth mained sable and in she background, dif cnt fo oUF hisoies. Iwas business 25 usual, asic were In caret, {en rn pte pt, ls ie cel tpn: fhe Aopxee at tabs rasa i S45) eM ae wer no eda “le yoo ange ‘ined by aeammision an roy. ning ns Bak The Arey of Kein ia 7 Mabe Foc in spd a ang ‘Ruston a0 Goscney Sergiy Slat fhe ceopocee? — ies be coset forms of cpio are ate ad hor he led aun Seng or syngas ——————— rn The Anthropocene and the destruction ofthe Globe 113, if tthe Holocene has reminted thi is proof that we have entered ino a new peciod of instal the Earth is becoming sense to fur actons and we humans are becoming to some extents geology ‘As we can see, a decision like this requires cavefalreecoone If ssraigeaphy has tevoluinized the history ofthe Earth, fis in pat thanks to the care with which geologints crest ies of nomena ture tis chus out of the question that jut anyone may be allowed {o decermine haphazardly the name ofthe Rest srstum of tock he or she comes acco, The report goes on: secreted the appl sa corey bie 9 poi att tlh re cher ad ei te "topocene” assay proven ob ry ttl te lal congener ‘arora white Gea ne le wade ma we runes lune to oer sai communis sh athe psi ‘To advance a proposal fr naming 2 geological epoch though the bureaucracy of he International GelogiealSocey is a oct ae acting law passed through the committees of patiament oe peo. ‘noting the bestication ofa ssi through Vatican diplomacy. And, ten ifthe steatgraphers agree to give hmanitys decisive role, they tell have to reach agreement on he date and onthe marke that wll Allow all specialists throughout the world t ecognie iin the rocks Sec ce des oan ost bee te Foes trea athe thercar ae & formal “Anuoposn® gt dled ise wh oes on on Quareary Staph, 201, empha add ety el Comes and Ean FS The abogscene "Ase arie contin he dae of ey 6, 1945, te dt he it mae Skithccaoenence a ings teste geal sens yee thi. Se Ja Za mr Jon Ce, "When Dak sheet A Minch ony ny» Seti 14 Fourth Lecture A flood of techizal questions tha stil do not allow us ofnd out whether oF not che Holocene i over and wheter the New Climate Regime teri in the eater lecures asa cortlte i he rock, Fo hed forgotten chat geologists aren he hab of taking teins ‘nl speaking of mils and bilsns of yas I took the ety 2 falteenury, for example, to decide on the Quaternary Heal That thy, indifeten to the presse coming fom secular voles ike ing that were eager to Know for ean whether the news was fetal fx no, toy calmly noted in thse conclasion that they had halt defer ter nal voe for atlas four years! “The Working Group ‘as apled for fanding to allow forth dacoson and neering, andis working each a congenss regarding frmalston By is hope, the 2016 International Celogeal Conga” "Nat the sonata expression “working to each a conscsus”~ 2 well a erating hab teacschrs have of always reusing more funds. You ean avderstand my dsspposnmen i a chop dal hein th woo eon eda ha bs {© humans responsibilty for having Become 2 geslogiea orc! ‘While the cons pening he papers publed by Zales working group offer to anyone wing co read them «astnting Example ofthe redisburin of agency that wea falling n these ietaes. Here we have ithe metamorphic zone Ive heen yg signa: all human acts eur oo tbe uansormed. i pre inv geologicl fovss everything that we esed to all beone einning fo be humanied ~ in any canto bear acy Of 4 tempest remodeled humanity is no longer a queston of and scapes, ofthe occupation of lan, or of local impact From now on, peat ner, Sep aie alot te the sine itl by de pe ppl a ee Sea The Antbropocene and the destruction ofthe Globe 115 the comparison i made onthe le of terest phesomens, With its incxese in energy expenitar, hin cz now ao ‘0 speakyat seventeen erat, twenty four hours doy hich oas, up fisking it comparable to the expenditure of enepy of ches xsteamis~ sbi mor om, bt veshnin transformation to ha of paw teams Ieisas though the sracgrapers, transporting thems ino the fucare through an elf ofinaginsion, were undewaking thease experiment that allowed them to delice rerospectauis To he tock lies that ae bepnning to acumulate, ast oe Soon humsa epoch had ben ie in the roca face exepching be seen: the modifeation, by dana ofthe csimesesson ic hangs in ccean aces the itodction of previously salon hema prodcts the eomposte rune of ran infatuctuer ale hiog that came before changes inthe shin tad otro trosony vations inthe nitrogen cle; the coninal groves of eps CO, pot to meaton the adden dagen of ice 8 dicing what biologats ate resigned to\caliog che "teak extinction Everything ean be iene al he mere lei scents bcauiey sof Jy 16, 1945, the deat dione ae Ife by atomic explosions ofer 3 seaman candi or the Ge “olde sik esy to deer throughs the world, andthe} mee Wel allow the geologist each cosenms Each item on the lsy and thief wh Is most fsiatng, could ‘ase been fund hroughow the nineteenth an tweniea cgr saraives boating ofthe abou exploits of Manicnd tare the Earth the bee o mane e Wi as ane difeence ee ee o longer rump: here no longer any guaston of nae acc. Instcad he fas om scathing he sedimentary roe br {eee of earlier hamats who had been rnd fo stone hein nee snaserslae dialect, fearares of Boy human an sone ead ‘melding. Anthropomnrphinm ofthe cial zones, ptromesphion oe (90 TW mol be reed The em tans rien has jean the G00 TW a aoe eis te Rocks (2008 decries his imagine one wih uae men se 6 Fourth Lecture tumans In any cat, wo have ison of eohstoica rcs in what tray resembles a wit exuldon, “This would be amesing if were nor o dma, bu what gives the members of the subcommission the moat pause isthe mac of time scles they have confront. Remember how we were taught i school to sandin awe befor the aw hy of geologic At ‘imomene when we eo hacdly imagine even eaching the age of {weary ur teachers ben over backoards fo find good pedagogies! vices that could sbolsh the indie datace tha separate uy from the ea ofthe dinosaurs o the epoch of Ley." And now, sud denly in «complete versal, we se geologists stunned by the api tiyshen of geo-human history» siythm that forces thereto place their “olden spike" in a segmee of two hundred or even ur sixty years (pening on whether they choose a recent or vary recent tr Doral border marker diese fe energeno he Anvopocene) ‘he formula "seologicsl time i now sed for an even at has come and gone more quik than the Sovitt Union though the diction between history and geohistory has suddenly disappeared, wh earbon and mitogen jl taking Oo at roc Hoportance om the cosmic scale ak the lst glacations or the Manhattan Project Let's alow the specialist in stratgraphy to proceed a her owe puce, snd wat patently for them to make a decon, Given the Importance of what wake, we camo bold tags the they ask foe tle more time in ode wo ads he acedeation of time, even if means adopting the pace of ¢reprsentaie of ie scademie boressacy 1 Anthropocene an exellent marker, “golden spike” ile beyond the Iromter of stratigraphy, i thet ame of shis geobistoreal period may become the most pertinent Philosophical, religious, athropologish and - as we shall soon ‘ce =politialconcee for beginning t tea eeay for good from the ‘otis of *Modera™ and "meer. eT The Anthropocene andthe destruction ofthe Globe 17 "indi emcing that his oxymoron inking geology and humanity Product ofthe cogtations of serous feolgis whe, ‘scent, had been toxlly diferent o the in and oe a ‘in the homan and ral scence, No postmodcrn phage thes, no anthcoplogs, no libral theologians wo pocal chor would hve dared pease the inne of humane on he scale a cers vokanes, eroson, and bichemisay, Wht eed Constucivis determined fo show tat ses ate powes tons, o ineualities bevwecn the sexes ar “only” his eps ured by humans, would have dara! say the sane thing ¢ chemical composion ofthe atmesphere? What ierny Gee would have extend the pescipls for decent tex 1 the sedimentary sara revealing inl the dea of the pases te [AL the very moment ven wae Bsoming fashionable to speak of the “port human’ inthe bn tones of chose who know the ie Sime of the uma i outdated” the “Asthropos™ has come bak and with a vengeance ~ owing othe thanliess empiial won of ‘erarchers whose ack of clr inlets ie to mock yang then mee “atria” Despite all tr sophascaton, te vrs elds of the humans, obese stay have been with ded the “haman dimension” agtinn the ilegmateenroahunene” of Science andthe rks of exenve "nautaeaton ol no dest Wha the istorian of mature have to be ceded wh binging to light” By giving 4 roraly new diension tothe very notion of “human dimension” these historians are proposing the ot ric] ermofal for pring anendosuheopocenscn swell sso ch forms of naturalism they are hus completly seconsteung te tale af ana agents, The magasine The Economist was gute altos this dogan on its cover i 2011 “Welcome tothe Atheoperent ta gt of his coneptal advance i oly ae op apet bemoge to ll ones. Tei pletion wall estos ty “Mente ef Malleos since ii thanks to the icin handling of this hare thet we have bepin to realize that our most gretoes ‘alas when adil tapped emit a cuther hollow sound! fs ene et er ares deme ne a ciao as ns Fourth Lecture longer astonished cha Deu and Guactari,atteconnoscus of {ie aonoper witha hammer” were pston enough o dw op PS gclogy of morn.” {Egoet thou nyng chat ths seopion nthe very definitions of the eae enabled cnegais vas immediatly unestood an for he seven tat Lovee efforts to xtact hs Gas fos {Pe iden of enue hve been drowned in sateen The Nature! {Sitar forma eso power that people have shed interpret the antroposnes fhe simple soperostion =o ere the Get Cai eonelaion~of nate” and “humanity ech pe taken a8 {Sram undue paiastion of scence I seme noe inereng £9 theo sek to welcome his ovation coming from ces aber than to baty iat once with Jor another ceigue of nstuisation thar woul crease uri Tong the opportuni fo undestand the Now Climate Regine "ast happesed, the maj since journal Nature, fur yeas afte The Economist, pt the Anthropoctne on is caver as we? One tthe dawings feted in the accompanying ate offs ees Spporeniy fond oe whecher we see copable of potng new wine in ld ote The satan ues the familiar pri of repre fenuaion known asthe “Arcmboldo fee in whith the earth ‘Snes prone thoes aed to reraw 9 sl recognisable face “Thi age canbe ated sw personaly test in do you se the pectin of human face om the conety, an abeopen on of Narre Ar fine glans has the lok of yb Ye ite look mote os, nothing connects inthe highly mudd Alban of features are we seog umn weap, sear Sion, war pining, tatoos, si sacar, othe» Hed of the Carte Tena a seventeenth entry Pench allegoil 9) Dows the Earth Think Ith les Delete a Fle Gane, A Thoand sso) 8 “rein ntl ftom of has fom he The Anthropocene and the destruction ofthe Globe 119 gure. Drawing by Jeniea Fortes olsen a tia the ‘Anbropocne in Nets March 1, 3015 and a geological ivemoey designed o shape « colsal stone gine ‘ho, lke the comimendaore in Monat’s Bon Giovanni geting ‘eady to ewist our arms to invite nf» deadly ew banque? Te iournl Nature desonstatesrtherelftnely hat ihas maxed the Bont singe cover story is tiled “The Fonan Epoch” wheres {heaton early announces, with ena the dmppearace of the human! Por my part, se rather as evidence ofthe ateaction ‘hac ts zone old for journals ad asuaor hs mecamorphie zone that we have leaned to scopsze an tha lag uy le by lil, beneath snd beyond the siperical charactereatons, to ‘Realy new disthuon ofthe fre granted to hun, sci Even ifthe competent insiuions of the Intemational Geological Associaton do not end up voting to adopt “Anthropocene” 8 tie ‘official label forthe epoct in which we nd outeles, ti sil worth aking advantage of the occasion to continue the Work of 120 Fourth Lecture Alsapercaatn, live by ite, al che ingredients that contbuted to the jt characteation of pple aa things under the OW Cinate ‘Soe thing is certain: th ld role of “nace” has be completely tedefne, The Anthropocene direct our attention vowaed mac sre than the “reconclition® of nature and society igo larger sytrn thae would be united by one ofthe other In oder to bring tout such a dialectical reconciliation, we would have to have aeceped the diving line bevween the social and the natural ~ the Dr Joey Sand Mr Hyde of modera history (Vl let you deide whic is which) Bar the Anthroposene doesnot “go bey” his ison circum ens it entire The geointoriel forces ceased fo be te amen the geological lores as soon as they Tased at mule points wi human ations. Where we were desting earl with natural p fomenon, at every point now we mes the "Anthtopos™ = at eat the sublanary region that i ov = and, wherever we follow human fooxprns, we discover modes of clating to things hat had formerly been leaied in the field of nazar, For example if we follow the nitzogen eye, where are we going to place the Biography of Fans alee and he chemisry of plant actera? If we draw te eben cycle who can say when Joseph Bis comes on stage and when the chemise sop ou ofthe ge? Ben falling he coun ok fiver, youre going co find human inflsence everywhere And ifn Hawai you come across rocks made pare of ava a party f 2 new substance, plastic, how are you going fo dra te line between For each of these aforementioned objects of the natural world, cles like these oblige us ater to fel te elect ofa Bago ronning tlong « Moebius stip. Weare gradeally forced to redisrbute ently what had formerly been ealed natural and what fd been called tocil or symbolic Do you remember the gap berween = physica” and “human” geography, ought to be unbridgesble or the ove between physica” and Pcuiural™ anthropology? The isinction Between the social scenes andthe natural science is totaly Barred. Nether nature nor society can enter intact into the Anthropecete, waiting to be peaceably “reconciled.” What happened fo the lndscape foe andr, Beene and Uae Senge, A Mary of Chery ince of Ree” te IE — The Anthropocene andthe destruction ofthe Globe 42 catler generation, ow ha tUfciaiston| of "wilderness Bat the disaggregation jx more radical sill on the side of the sforementioned humans. Here we eocounte the ful ony of hing $e eraditional fae of the Anthropos sacha new charscertatn Te woul he absurd infact to thin that there ww cllecive beng, human society, that isthe new agent of geohistory asthe proeeariat ‘was thought © be in an eaies epoch Inthe face ofthe old tare ‘tet reconstituted — theres Itezally no one about whom one can Say that he or she i respansble, Why? Because theres no way to tify the Anthropos aban actor endowed with some soc of motel or Political consistency, to che point of charging i with beings charset Cepabe of acing on tls ew gb ag” No sine a sntheopomorphic character can pactpate ia the Archropocene this is where che whole interest ofthe notion les. Speaking ofthe “antheopie origin” of global waeming is meaning less infact, f by “anthvopie™ we mean something lke “the hums species” Who cen claim eo speak fr the human in general without rousing a thousand protest once? Indignane voices wil be rrsed to say that they do not hold themselves responsible in any way for these actions on the geological seale~and they wil be igh The Idi nations deep inthe Amazonian ores have nothing todo With the “anthropic origin” of climate change ~ at est to lg as pol «lang cunning fr election haven given them chain saws, The same ‘an be sid ofthe poor resdens in Bombay's shantytgums, wh cao ‘only dream of having 2 carbon footprint nore sighiean than the ‘ore left bythe soot fom their makeshif stoves." No mote than the pening co the whole Earth: gradual making the noion of *nacute” ee obsolete that Ed fe vd Oe the oui of Le Cpa Rees DO ee sey The it at thes flat change willbe fad ang ins tal warming ony ben origin tha no coneapodieg ean soc camara» pit sen" Paco Sud dor Calne ok al amigo arin el Se ff Tle m Fourth Lecture worker forced 0 travel long distances by cae because she has been able find affordable housing ner the factory where she works: who ‘would dare shame heron account of her carbon fooiprnt? “This i why the Anthropocene,dspte ts noe nr a immed erate extension of antheopacentism, as we could boast of having realy been changed ino Sopermen of sorts, Ming about in red and blue costumes. Ie rather the hua a8 a nied agent a Simple virtual poltial ent, a 2 ives concep, chat hs to be ‘decomposed into several distinct peopies, endowed wih contadic- tory interes, competing teritones, and brought together bythe ‘wattng agents not co say wasting divinities, The Aathcopos ofthe Anthropocene? Its Babel after the fall of the huge tower, Finally, humans are nor universiable, Finally, they ae mot off the ground Finally they ate not outside of teresa history” What keeps us from raking advantage of this disaggregation ofthe teaonal gues ia mental image that had remained intact th ough ‘our the whole history of philosophy she idea of a Sper hat cowl Sllow anyone to “think globally and to bear om hs ox hee shoulders the orice weighe of the Globe ~ that steange Western obsesion which isthe real “hive mans borden,” In other words we have to Ducan end ro what could be caled “Atlas curse” Leto recall that Atlas vas one ofthe Titans, one of the numerous monsters that were oan from the blood of chore whos Gata had planned to assassinate {I mean the mythological Gaia whom we encountered inthe pve ing lecture, the ane whore proveative portrait was deawn by Flesiog, the goddess who was more ancient chun all the Olympians” ‘To remove some ofthis excess weight fom ov shoulders, we have to indulge in litle spherology, the fascinating project invented out of whole clock by Peter Sloerie n his massive thr=-vlome stady ‘ofthe envelopes that are indispensable tothe pespetuaion of lie: Sotedijk borrowed von Ueskl's notion of Umwele™ sad extended ‘cco all spheres, all enclosures, all the envelopes that agents have had to invent to differentiate between she insae and the ouside “To accept such an extension, one has to consider all the philoso cal and selec questions thas raised ss being part ofa tery trond se Sot, Clore Macrspherloy (1999 2014, ab oe Usk & tanya te Worl fa SEE The Amtbropocene and the destruction ofthe Globe 123 ‘definition of immunology, viewed by Sloe neither a « human ‘cience nr as @ natural tence bu, rather, a the fie adhropcenie Siecipline! Sloterdik is thinker who takes metaphors seriously and fully ses how wall hey tbeasure up to reality for hundeeds of pages, nectsary. His immunalogical challenge ls to detect how et ety, whatever it may ba peotets isl fam destruction by building & sort of well-controlled intel meu hat allows ft to create peo tecive membrane around sell He aks this question at every Evel with subborn determination. Even when he malciousy catches hit ‘aster Heidegger up short for fling to answer question uth the following: When you say thae the Daze i “tarown ino” the wore “nto” what i it actually chown? What isthe composition ofthe air it breaths cere? How isthe temperate conrlled? What sor ‘of macriaisconstce the wall that keep the Dasen from sufloest ing? In short, whats the climate in its ai-onditionng system? Ay Sloterdik ses i, these are exactly the asad bur esentil ques tons tae philosophers and scents ofall tendencies snd all peces have never agreed vo snewer with adequate precision For Slowed, the complete singulacity of Western philosophy, science, theology, end polite isin te fact that they have infeed all the vioes nt che Figure of» Globe — with» capa G — without paying the slightest ateation vo the way in which that Globe might be bat, tended, maintained, and inhabied, The Giobe is supposed to inchide everything hat is true and beau, even if his 2 atchiectonc impossbiey that will cllase as soon a you think Secioesly about how and threugh what ft olde up and especialy Dow i tovesed. Sloterdik ies a set of very simple, very humble aschitectoral questions, just as material as those the geologists raise with thee hhammers: Where are you residing, when you say that you have 4 lbal view” of the universe? How are you peotced fom ann lation? What do you set? What ai are you breathing? How do you keep warm, how do you dress, how do you eat? And if you eannot satay thes fundamental needs fle how can you keep on cling {o speak of she tru andthe beatiful if you occupied some higher rung on a moral ladder If you dont specify sei ne-condiconing fyste, the values cha you are trying to delehd are probably already dead ike plans char have been kept insides geeenhouse overexposed to the sun. In Sleds ands, even mote than in Lovelock, the ‘notions of homeostasis and climate contol take ona highly meta physical dimension. This is wha’ called taking the somosphere ‘ua! e's also the New Climate Regime ros Fourth Lecture ‘As son a ementary questions suchas these come pt becomes Aighyunltly chr one can see anything ubsesoces ons No one has ever ied inthe infiteunferse: Aad at one Re ‘en lived “in Nature” Those people who faghen taeesiner \andesng stound the infinite universe ne alts guion ewe Saal globe with e sitar area of two or dice quan oe the waconth of thar eet loss under the coatoretietake of hsp.” Instead of saying tat “ce tel alee of nt spae reves me," Psel should have sexsi hime Imurmur of the inseuments conBned within thes lenied epee soothes meas informs me" When the epiemog ce tt we can lve “in Nature, what they ate realy doer caring nk what for Sloterdkcamouns to acral at of destachons kone through ll the prsecve envelopes necessry for the mimi «al fanction of life (and lle, for hit sus s6 much palide se ec Biology and sociology very thowphty eer concept, escy project that alto take ito account theses ofthe api enelopes tat makeckexeas fn in architecture and design iwi nox have he soho ee sondions th sould make viable: Trying vo lve socks toes would be ike trying to save al our precious dats nthe Che witout est esting compute casers and tcgernon sen = 1 you wane to keep using the words “raenl” and Statens oy ahead, bs then lo do the work of conccing ef telly freee Spaces which the presumed inhabits can rete, sung eat themselts, and reproduce, The uncontroled materi of hens condoned systems anther form af sin Thus from page o page Soteritremaceriaizes aa new vay what icrmeans to ben space, on hie Eathoeig wate fre paleo that responds ditiyt the regent ofthe Antaopoctes ene bring ouseves bck down vo Earth: What iments me pacts ‘stay inthe middle of his second volume, the thor deve soe pop rl nrc whois cl he tl Ret The nthropocene and the destruction ofthe Globe 125 hundred pages to a meditation thc he titles “Deus sive Sphaeray “God, thats the Sphere.” The points diate bust me ahal soe later oa, it allows ut to remove the principal cificalty conmeon ss the sciences and the umanites when they approach tie saperomean ism question, “The lite crack chat Sloe the fst co poine oot, I bei, sesults fom the unceslved bioclisn of the Christie image lee over from the pee-Copenican epach, the one we have slveady encountered with Galle. What looks like a simple technical defect in design in face destabilizes the entre architecture of Wesera soe mology: Despite che pace] impossibility of deaing the we types ff plbes together, thealogians have striven to bring them into on éidence one theecetric, the othe geocentric When God spaced st the center, the Earth anu inviably be legate to the pesighery aad revolve around Him, A fest lance, this dest sem too awewat, because our plane is assigned a modes cols righ perpen, But 'e problem becomes more complicated a soon a one puts the Earth athe center, with Hell located inthe mide, ner the sublanary world then it God wio is removed to the peghery, This posicon ing i at so realy accessible: God, for ational thediogy, cannot be pctipheral! How, Slcerdi asks, can you construct a entire cosmo ‘ony with two contradictory centers, one that revolves atund God ‘hile she other revolver acound the Eareh? For two millennia, Slotesd lls uy this litle fawn coastretion sens to have posed no problem for ticalogans, etsy, mystics, berm eg don sw he omits Sea Se none projec wai he cary fle ea te Ree This philosophy is erernal,pehaps, ba itis enirely empty within es sphere of tonexntence The cus ofthe Globe ie poor ee theologians have designed cosmic god inthe form of two wodsly spheres wihournoryng abou iz ahteconie Seplanbliy he Dante to Nichols of Cus, from Robert Fiadd to Athanasius Kircher, fight up vo moder lsraoes such 2 Gustave Dor, te disconnect ‘emai boh patent nd constanl denied. Although visually impos, sible, the gene emanation of Gods grace toward the humats Earth ‘was never called into questin, even i no one could erally dt mystic rays by contimaous lines across the cet tha divided the ew 126 Fourth Lecture ‘stems, This i why it bas become so avkowand to relate any history ‘of she planet ~ and stil ess any geohistoxys os soon as philosophy lative itis thinking pobally se becomes incapable of coneciing of Tite se well as of space, You cold protest shat we have 9 eason to atibute any importance ‘otis flaw nthe consructign of Chistian theology. After al coke fc snot the strong suit of eigious minds, and one moce chink in tir operation has litle chance of being noted. Bet what fascinates sein this discovery i tha exacey the same incoherence it upheld bythe architecture though whic rationality hes been constcete, ‘What Slots has detected in Chitin invagery has Boca dete just as clearly by the history of science fn scent texts, Those nothing surprising abour this tis the same problem epeatd al vee ‘gain, appearing Ruse in the history of eligion, then inthe history of science, owing tothe tralzia npr of which there ae 1 aay examples, and c0 which [shall return Inter on. I sas inpoetle fo situate the Earth as its to stabilize the cents around which the ther entity is presumed 10 cevlve. Let ws recall how pecarocs the ‘Copernican revolution” that Kant claimed to have inrodced inte philosophy has always been: how could he have made ws belive ther ‘making the Object reolve around the human Subject cul cota a5 an abandonment of anhropocentrsm? The metaphor is 40 badly adjusted thc it has thrst every definition ofthe “hue in natuse into osilations thar make one's ead sin-and in som cave indece uses. To ream 20 the fst mesning of the Won! "evalitions s a5 though there hed never been a table cuter sound which the Earth could revue ‘When ic is a question of cence a it i practiced science ination, sll ofa sudden researchers have to ein to talk abou tie labors ‘ory lives, The same stentists who sed to levitate from nowhere ate brought back into tercestial badies of flesh and blood in nae rowly situated places. When pysicats clbrae the gest heroes of science, they dons hesitate to moune a plaque on » wal with sexy for example like the one spotted ia Cambridge and found partic lnny delectable: “Herein 1897 atthe old Cavendish Laborstoy J, THOMSON discovered the electron subsequently recognized & the fire fundamental particle of physics and the basis of chemical bonding electronics an! compusing”™ rT.).!UW!WUDCOUVC, The Anthropocene andthe destracton of the Globe 127 Ir is hard to dcover a more situated piece of knowledge than this one. I starts fom one preily determined place Pact hchad Lane (which has become the temple ofthe history of sien) wen estos that aze firmly in che hands ofa reat sien apd Set ‘extends tothe whol wosl, since electrons ate atthe fore of a hemieal bonds and all computers! But + minute Inte, thee ease physics wil have no qualms abou explaining to you how the oad af Stephen Hawking. wandets through the cosmos in intimate, de Jog with the Creator, navel ignoring the fc that Hahn's ed Benet not enly fom a brain but also fom “collective body cone posed of + huge network of computers chais, msrumente meee ides, and voice synchesizere chat are necessary for the pdseenee infolding of his equations This bifocal conception of sees dose ‘noe allow the “view from nowhere" tobe reconciled with these so¢p Paticula places: classrooms, offers, laboratory benches, compose ers, meting rooms, expeditions and id stations, the ster here scientists have to place themselves when they actualy have to oblate data ov really wonte tei artes, “The two images of the world in Christian theology ace jus a ire ‘onclablea the images tha would be represented, fot example by the physics of the cletron this presen veryaherin the world even ce "eis safely housed ir]. Thomson’ Cavendish Laboratory, But tig iteconcilbility is denied by siete and pilosophers ust at mice 35 by theologians and mystics. Psraphrasing Sota could say “

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