How to Think About Catastrophe: Toward a Theory of Enlightened Doomsaying

During the last century humanity acquired the ability to destroy itself.  The direct approach to destruction can be seen in such facts as the  ever-present threat of nuclear war, but we have also developed the  capacity to do indirect harm by altering conditions necessary  for survival, including the looming cloud of climate change. How can we  look forward and work past the dire position we now find ourselves in to  achieve a sustainable future? This volume presents a new way of  thinking about the future as it examines catastrophe and the human  response. It examines different kinds of catastrophes that range from  natural (e.g., earthquakes) to industrial (e.g., Chernobyl) and  concludes that the traditional distinctions between them are only  becoming blurrier by the day. This book aims to build a general theory  of catastrophes—a new form of apocalyptic thinking that is grounded in  science and philosophy. An ethics for the sake of the future is what is  required, which in turn necessitates a new metaphysics of temporality.  If a way out of the imminent danger in which we find ourselves is to be  found, we must first look to radically alter our ethics.