L’Enlivenment d’Andreas Weber comme réponse à la maltraitance du vivant et à l’impasse de l’anthropocène

Andreas Weber argues that the mistreatment of living beings stems from a destructive logic inherited from Descartes, modern science, and Darwinian economic liberalism. Drawing on traumas from his biology studies, observations of botanical blindness during the 2018 drought, and the slaughter of 17 million minks in Denmark during the coronavirus pandemic, he contends that new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions are not the priority. Instead, he points to recent revolutions in the life sciences as a way to transcend this logic. Weber proposes a paradigm shift called "Enlivenment," which valorizes immersion in life and scientific empathy, preparing an ethics of reciprocity and sharing that embraces all living beings.

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Abstract

When Andreas Weber addresses the issue of the mistreatment of living beings, he analyses the traumas he experienced during his own biology studies, as well as the botanical blindness he sensed in the population during the historic drought in 2018 and the slaughter of 17 million minks in Denmark during the coronavirus pandemic. The philosopher is convinced that it is not important to develop new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in this day and age. Instead, he points the finger at a destructive logic inherited from Descartes, modern science and Darwinian economic liberalism, and recognizes in the recent revolution in life sciences a way to transcend this logic. He proposes a paradigm shift, called Enlivenment, which valorizes immersion in life and scientific empathy, thus preparing the emergence of a new ethics of reciprocity and sharing that embraces all living beings.