Abstract
One of the most daunting obstacles to the prevention of catastrophes is our perception of time or, as Jean-Pierre Dupuy calls it, the standard “metaphysics” of time. As long as the future is seen as a virtual realm admitting of multiple possibilities, we will never come to a focused and serious strategy of collective action appropriate to the threats we face. That is why we have to change our concept of future. Dupuy proposes a new metaphysics of time he calls projected time. According to this, we should not imagine time to be a kind of decision tree but a temporal loop. In this way, our viewpoint can be the time after the catastrophe has already taken place. Looking back from future to present our question inevitably will be: “What could we have done to prevent this situation?”
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Further Reading
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre. “The Precautionary Principle and Enlightened Doomsaying: Rational Choice before the Apocalypse.” Occasion: Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 1 (2009).
———. Economy and the Future: A Crisis of Faith. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2014, IV.
———. A Short Treatiese on the Metaphysics of Tsunamis. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2015.
Jonas, Hans. The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age. Chicago London: The University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Guggenberger, W. (2017). Enlightened Doomsaying. In: Alison, J., Palaver, W. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_54
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53825-3_54
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55280-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53825-3
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)