Grand Narratives, Metamodernism, and Global Ethics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

Abstract

Some philosophers contend that to effectively address problems such our global environmental crisis, humans must collectively embrace a polyphonic, environmentalist grand narrative, very different from the narratives accepted by modernists. Cultural theorists who write about metamodernism likewise discuss the recent return to a belief in narratives, and contend that our society’s current approach to narratives is very different from that of the modernists. In this paper, I articulate these philosophers’ and cultural theorists’ positions, and I highlight and explore interconnections between them. Additionally, I argue that if the authors I discuss are correct, then we morally ought to embrace a metamodernist, polyphonic, environmentalist grand narrative, in order to effectively address an array of global crises. Such a grand narrative is a necessary ingredient of an adequate global ethics.

Publication

Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy

Publisher

Cosmos and History Publishing Cooperative

City/State

Australia

Volume

14

Issue

3

Pages

241-272

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Link to Full Text


Share

COinS