Otherwise than human: responsibility in the wake of disaster, an eco-deconstructive response to climate catastrophe

This thesis will, firstly, assume a line of eco-deconstructive reasoning, which takes as its point of departure from other approaches to the environment the basic premises of deconstruction, which aim to de-center the ontological and epistemological assumptions of Western thought about the subject and language, and apply it to the concept of the human as a distinct and, most importantly, privileged being as this privilege has operated within language and culture, thereby demonstrating how climate catastrophe constitutes a fundamental rupture in traditional ontology. Secondly, I will turn towards the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, as in present in his God, Death, and Time and Totality and Infinity, and bring the anthropocentrism at the heart of his philosophy to bear the weight of responsibility we owe to, not just our human neighbors but, more significantly, to our nonhuman neighbors at a time when those nonhuman others can no longer go unrecognized.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Harris, James W

Contributors dc:contributor

• Guy, Matthew Wayne
• Stuart, Christopher; Palmer, Heather
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Ecoliterature
• Environmental responsibility
• Semiotics and literature
• Levinas, Chanonas, 1914-

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/1023

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2210