Denaturalizing Ecological Politics : Alienation From Nature From Rousseau to the Frankfurt School and Beyond

Alienation from Nature from Rousseau to the Frankfurt School and Beyond Denaturalizing Ecological Politics is an attempt to excavate from modern political thought a means of rescuing human ecology -humans' relationship with their environment -from the ideological trap of naturalism. In this work Andrew Biro develops a political theory of nature that takes seriously both the reality of the ecological crises generated by industrial and postindustrial society, and the antifoundationalist critiques of 'nature' developed in postmodern social theory. The book opens with a discussion of the deep ecologists, who argue for a view of nature as prior to the social, and who see nature as a guide for, or absolute limit to, human action. Following is a look at the structuralist and poststructuralist social theorists, who claim that our understanding of nature is solely an effect of the social -an ideological reinforcement of social structures. In the remaining chapters the author's readings of Rousseau, Marx, Adorno, and Marcuse provide the starting point for a 'denaturalized' rethinking of ecological politics. Through a close examination of primary texts and relevant secondary sources focused on the concept of 'alienation from nature/ Biro argues that an adequate understanding of human ecology must see human beings not as biologically separate from the rest of nature, but as historically differentiated through the self-conscious transformation of the natural environment. He maintains that only after the complexities of the intertwining of nature and the social are fully grasped can we begin to disentangle the social relations and processes that are necessary for a liberatory human ecology from those that serve to reinforce relations of domination.

The possibility of bringing the insights of modern political theory to bear on the problems of human ecology has long been plagued by disagreements over the category of nature itself. But with Denaturalizing Ecological Politics, Andrew Biro has found a way of rescuing environmentalism from the ideological trap of naturalism.

Biro develops an environmental political theory that takes seriously both the materiality of the ecological crises generated by industrial and post-industrial society and the anti-foundationalist critiques of ‘nature’ developed in postmodern social theory. He argues that the theoretical basis for ecological politics can be better advanced through the lens of alienation from nature, sidestepping some of the pitfalls of debates over conceptions of nature itself.

Biro traces the development of the concept of alienation from nature through four modern political thinkers – Rousseau, Marx, Adorno, and Marcuse – each of whom are read as arguing that human beings are not biologically separate from the rest of nature, but are nevertheless historically differentiated from it through the self-conscious transformation of the natural environment. In so doing, Biro provides the starting point for a ‘denaturalized’ rethinking of ecological politics.

The possibility of bringing the insights of modern political theory to bear on the problems of human ecology has long been plagued by disagreements over the category of nature itself. But with Denaturalizing Ecological Politics, Andrew Biro has found a way of rescuing environmentalism from the ideological trap of naturalism. Biro develops an environmental political theory that takes seriously both the materiality of the ecological crises generated by industrial and post-industrial society and the anti-foundationalist critiques of 'nature' developed in postmodern social theory. He argues that the theoretical basis for ecological politics can be better advanced through the lens of alienation from nature, sidestepping some of the pitfalls of debates over conceptions of nature itself. Biro traces the development of the concept of alienation from nature through four modern political thinkers - Rousseau, Marx, Adorno, and Marcuse - each of whom are read as arguing that human beings are not biologically separate from the rest of nature, but are nevertheless historically differentiated from it through the self-conscious transformation of the natural environment. In so doing, Biro provides the starting point for a 'denaturalized' rethinking of ecological politics Contents 9 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction: Nature or ‘Nature’? Ecological Politics and the Postmodern Condition 15 1. Ecocentrism and the Defence of Nature 26 2. Postmodernism: The Critique of ‘Nature’ 47 3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Modernity and the Historicization of Alienation 73 4. Karl Marx: Objectification and Alienation under Capitalism 97 5. Theodor W. Adorno: From Udeis to Utopia 131 6. Herbert Marcuse: Basic and Surplus Alienation 174 7. Denaturalizing Ecological Politics 211 Notes 233 Bibliography 245 Index 259