March 13, 2025
Online at 1:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
With Sam Mickey
University of Toronto's Buddhism and Posthumanism series
Existentialism is a renewable resource. What began as a literary and philosophical movement in the 19th century has undergone a profound transformation in recent years, as the conditions of habitats and inhabitants of Earth have been altered by the rapid growth of industrial societies. Sam Mickey articulates ways in which the ideas, attitudes, styles, and practices associated with existentialism are being renewed in response to the historically unprecedented ecological challenges facing humans and all life on Earth. An ecological existentialism or coexistentialism has emerged in the work of scholars who engage with what remains after the ends of the world, a sense of ”after” associated with what can be called “post” discourses, like postmodernism, postsecularism, postcolonialism, and posthumanism,. Ecological existentialism seeks ways of existing after the end of the world. In our current moment of crisis, we are called to renew our engagement in questions of freedom, agency, anxiety, meaning, humanity, life, and the very nature of existence.