Being Ecological | Timothy Morton | RSA Replay

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Timothy Morton, named one of the world's most influential living philosophers, and a cross-disciplinarian who has collaborated with Björk, Pharrell Williams and Hans Ulrich Obrist, is at the forefront of a group of thinkers offering new insights into ecological awareness and the human experience in the Age of the Anthropocene. In his new work, Morton confronts the information-dump fatigue of the digital age, by offering no ecological 'facts' but instead a radically invigorated and liberating approach to understanding ourselves, our interconnectedness with each other and the biosphere that sustains us.
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Category
Education

[@Helena-dt6bc]

Morton's thoughts extend far beyond the realms of ecological criticism, reaching into every domain of existence. Sit with his ideas. Listen deep. His message is, in the truest sense of the word, vital.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

when he starts his car something IS happening - he's kicking out toxic pollution like benzene.

[@leeloohad]

I could read his books or listen to his speeches all day :)

[@illustratornamedkasper]

Same!

[@illustratornamedkasper]

I love Timothy Morton. His way of communicating abstract philosophical matter, subjects such as nature and ecology are so original. Plus, his humour and examples of how weird human nature is always calms me down when I think too much about the climate crisis.

[@angelacockayne3538]

Wonderful and imperative - a kindly light on our moral responsibility to protect biodiversity

[@copypaste3526]

One can say a lot about Timothy Morton. But nobody can criticise his excellent fashion sense.

[@smnt9616]

37:56 I enjoyed the talk but this person is also right.

[@space_eko]

In regards to what Tim says about constituents being greater than wholes.. it reminds of something Alan Watts says in Man, Woman, and Nature. Essentially the idea is that what there is, ontologically, is not a would of disparate facts, but a world of relationships. The one thing is greater than the whole thing because the one thing can be broken down into innumerable relationships (and the one thing IS the whole thing) therefore the boundary between thing and other thing is a meaningless abstraction.

[@Likkivi]

He reduces existence to coexistence.

[@simonaschmidt]

This guy is cool.

[@sawtoothiandi]

So are you

[@KMHill]

The opening seems to be missing.

[@patronatiluminat4785]

without opening, indeed...

[@funch357]

Lord he was born a ramblin' man.

[@jimcameron9848]

You had me at Yoko Ono

[@matthewhanks7169]

Interesting how the guy who disagreed with Morton on how the media aggressively communicates climate change factoids-he reported on a widespread sense of climate denialism in the media (not wrong about that)-ends up saying so with the tone that seems to me to be eerily similar to what Morton is skeptical of w/r/t ecological communication: often intense jeremiads that aren’t conduce to open conversation. If you felt yourself tense up when this guy spoke on the mic to Tim, then you’ll understand what I mean

[@lakinzi]

He is looking ecological

[@projectmalus]

The whole is simpler than the sum of its parts, but isn't it on a higher level? Nothing to do with value, of course, and I'm not sure exactly what "higher level" refers to...perhaps only a scale of size from quantum to universal.

[@muzwot9603]

His air conditioning invention, "not America's fault", was particularly unhelpful. 'Let one of the world's most influential nations off the hook' because of your own dual national status bias?! Their attitude to ecology has long been abysmal. Never forget the US had a chance to sign the Kyoto agreement and point blank REFUSED

[@kkinslowable]

the whole and the sum of its parts: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJuvgKJqrMumfac

[@TJB_333]

RAM philosophy in a ROM world.

[@darksinesmusic]

do you mean Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement in a Resilient Ontological Madness world?

[@robinlillian9471]

He's rambling.

[@naushadahmed8090]

Everyone should spend time with Pentii linkola, they will become ecological.

[@sawtoothiandi]

i just read the wikipedia article for mr linkola. i understand his despair, but strongly disagree with his self-hating human schtick

[@theaccount4841]

The most self-righteous and arrogant lecture I've ever listened to.

[@sawtoothiandi]

are you feeling alright?

[@celestialteapot3310]

Means well, but not saying anything new.

[@PostStructuralistId]

I read half of the book, listened to over 20 minutes of this, can't get a word out of all this. Ecology is an interesting philosophical subject, but this guy dulls everything, remnants of postmodern obscurantist bullshit. Re-enchantment incarnated indeed.

[@sawtoothiandi]

check arran gare then

[@beaudoin127]

I understand what you mean, some formulas can sound a bit obscure, but at the same time, he's not using a "postmodernist" rhetoric at all (everything is comstructed, our comprehension pass througt words, everything is only power, there is not a reality...). Quite the contrary, he's building is reflexion on things that sciences proposed and, as someone who's interested in this subject for a little while, he's not throwing sand in your eyes: you can find theses ideas elsewhere and they come from a community of "knowledge makers"... So yeah, maybe he as a style problem but I fear that we might pass over these ideas because they may be hard to get into, and we think that if something seems weird or obscure, then it's propably postmodern... No offense, but you see...

[@darksinesmusic]

you clearly haven't read his critique of marx in "Humankind: solidarity with nonhuman people", or read marx for that matter. give Humankind a chance, and you'll understand what he's getting at. there's a lot there beneath Morton's semantics of contemporary philosophy that turns so many people off, which holds value in the context of the crisis capitalism in which we live.

[@livefastdieyoung2470]

Are you for re-enchantment or against it?

[@paulkamill2119]

His presentation style (both personal and verbal) does not help our understanding of his meaning. His book, perhaps, is more coherent. Bruno Latour is marginally better at both presentation of ideas, and written ideas. Some of the ideas of OOO are worthwhile. This vaguely reminds me of the "hippie" era, when the general populace were alienated by the "appearance" of hippies. But this has happened repeatedly (think "Punk" etc).