Philosophy

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June 6, 2025

Virtue Ethics and Ecosabotage

David Pereplyotchik

A recent spate of climate protests and mass-movement civil disobedience events has reinvigorated mainstream discussions of the ethics of civil disobedience, direct action, and various forms of ecosabotage. In this paper, I examine the present-day case for both non-violent civil disobedience and more extreme forms of "direct action" in response to the global climate emergency. In particular, I explore how the framework of virtue ethics can be applied in this context, yielding conclusions that will be disappointing to prospective eco-saboteurs but encouraging to those committed to non-violent resistance.

February 1, 2023

What is the Sun?

Oxana Timofeeva

Philosopher Oxana Timofeeva explores human conceptions of the sun, from ancient mythologies and philosophical metaphors to modern techno-scientific designs to extract virtually unlimited amounts of energy. In this elegant essay, Timofeeva offers a mythological rejoinder to unbounded techno-scientific ambitions, noting that the endless pursuit of extraction, even when applied to solar energy, is likely to end up like an ecological Icarus.

October 6, 2020

Welcome to Energy Humanities

Mark Simpson, Imre Szeman, and Caleb Wellum

Developed by the Transitions in Energy, Culture, and Society (TECS) project and the Petrocultures Research Group, energy humanities features commentary on current developments in energy and the environment, announcements and news items, and video interviews with influential and emerging voices on energy & society. This site gathers some of the most exciting and important insights humanities researchers provide about the social nature of our environmental crises.

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