Critique of technology as metaphysics: reflection on the post-nature narrative of the Antropocene

Abstract

This text proposes a critique of technology as addressed in the post-nature narrative of the Anthropocene. Within this narrative, also called post-environmentalism, Anthropocene is the historical moment in which the impossibility of an idealized notion of nature – distinct from human intervention – becomes clear. In this text, it is argued that, although questioning crucial aspects of modern thought, this narrative also has significant theoretical-conceptual problems derived from the centrality attributed to technological mediation, which eventually turns it into a kind of metaphysics. The exposition of the post-nature arguments comes from the dialogue with texts of post-environmental activists, such as Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, and from scholars who provide post-environmentalists with theoretical and conceptual background, such as Bruno Latour. and Peter Sloterdijk. The critique draws on the arguments of the contemporary philosophers Dieter Mersch and Andreas Luckner, who unfold ideas already introduced by Martin Heidegger and point to the shortcomings of metaphysical perspectives on technology.