James R. Martin

I’m an eco-cultural philosopher — which is a fancy way of saying I am obsessed with trying to understand our human relationship to ecosystems and the biosphere in relation to philosophy of culture.

kaleidoscope

Energy Descent, a Kaleidoscopic Dialogue

It may seem odd that I’d begin an essay on the topic of energy descent as I am, by speaking of this theme specifically as a topic of philosophical concern. But I have my reasons for doing so, as hopefully you’ll soon understand.

November 13, 2023

numbers

Painting By Numbers?

A living culture wouldn’t — doesn’t — refuse abstractions. It simply provides abstractions, like numbers, with a proper and limited focus and scope.

November 6, 2023

truffles

Some Rough Sketch Notes on Disabstraction

To “disabstract” an account, a bit of history, a narrative or story, an image, idea or concept, an academic discipline or theory…, is to re-embed it in a world of history, concrete particulars, detailed situations, context, depth, richness, complexity, specificity, detail, situatedness, place… and so much more.

October 30, 2023

The Mad Hatter's party

2023 – 2033, The Decisive Decade

I really, really don’t want to waste the next ten years, which may be the most crucial and decisive years of all of human history, collectively pretending that we can avert worst case future climate scenarios by dramatically increasing fossil fuel consumption.

October 2, 2023

luxury yacht

What is a “luxury economy,” really?

Energy and materials flows must (a normative and ethical claim) shrink to avert worst case scenarios of anthropogenic climate disruption. And they will shrink in this time frame due to increasing resource scarcity.

September 18, 2023

forest

The Meaning of Life

There is no the meaning of life. Life is bigger by far than that! It’s meaningfulness is infinite!

September 15, 2023

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