Contribution to an immanent critique of the domination of nature.

摘要

Critical assessments of environmentalism in the United States frequently highlight mainstream organizations' failure to articulate an ecological vision of the future that can motivate and inspire a broad-based political movement. This dissertation argues that despite its reputation for pessimistically distancing itself from political practice, the Frankfurt School tradition in critical theory can address this shortcoming of environmentalism by providing a starting point for developing a thorough diagnosis of contemporary ecological crises as well as envisioning the historical possibility of overcoming them.;First, critical theory relies on the method of immanent critique, which identifies ecological and emancipatory tendencies that are simultaneously generated and stifled by the capitalist social form. This gap between the potential of society and its actual state creates a space where the environmentally destructive effects of capitalism can be criticized from within. A second feature of critical theory is its critique of the domination of nature. Several theorists associated with the Frankfurt School, including Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse, call into question the assumption that advances in science and technology will necessarily promote the well-being of humanity, on the basis that these forces can also undermine the material preconditions for human flourishing. Third, critical theory embraces moments of utopian speculation that enable it to envision the possibility of bringing about an ecological future.;Tensions exist, however, between these three aspects of critical theory. Its critique of the domination of nature risks abandoning the method of immanent critique by relying on nature as a site of resistance that exists outside of society. In addition, critical theory's utopian visions at times celebrate the mastery, if not outright domination, of nature as a means to abolishing scarcity. Finally, the positing of an ecological society that has yet to be established also has the potential to undermine the method of immanent critique, unless one grounds this possibility in social tendencies that already exist in the present. This dissertation seeks to reconcile these features of critical theory through a reconstruction of its critique of the domination of nature, and considers the implications of this critique for contemporary environmental politics.