Scholastic fallacies? Questioning the Anthropocene

The view that we live in the Anthropocene is increasingly gaining currency across scientific disciplines. Especially in sociology this is said to require a paradigm shift in analysis and theory formation. This article argues that such a conclusion is premature. Owing to a scholastic fallacy – the un...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Thesis eleven 2021-08, Vol.165 (1), p.136-144
Main Author: Neckel, Sighard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic disciplines
Anthropocene
Capitalism
Collective action
Dissolution
Fallacies
Globalization
Heterogeneity
Inequality
Social inequality
Social justice
Social sciences
Sociology
Theory formation
Transposition
Universalism
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Summary:The view that we live in the Anthropocene is increasingly gaining currency across scientific disciplines. Especially in sociology this is said to require a paradigm shift in analysis and theory formation. This article argues that such a conclusion is premature. Owing to a scholastic fallacy – the uncritical transposition of the concept from the natural to the social sciences – Anthropocene lacks analytic clarity and explanatory power evidenced by: a normative overreach that erroneously imagines an idealised world citizenry with collective action capacities; an obfuscation of the unequal distribution of ecological pathologies caused by capitalism; a normative indeterminacy concerning modes of redress; and an abstract ecological universalism offered as moral panacea. The article suggests that sociology needs to address the Anthropocene’s heterogeneity marked by contradictory regional interests and inequalities that neither appeals to social justice or ‘one humanity’ nor an escape into a dissolution of ontological differences between actors and artefacts can redeem. To that end, sociologists are asked to undertake a critical reconstruction of the concept.
ISSN:0725-5136
1461-7455
DOI:10.1177/0725513621993278