Beyond Biocentrism: Cavell, Thoreau, and Transcendence in the Ordinary
Beyond Biocentrism: Cavell, Thoreau, and Transcendence in the Ordinary

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I aim at questioning L. Buell’s politics of the environment, which relies on the assumption of unproblematic coexistence between man and nature. Analyzing Stanley Cavell’s reading of Henry D. Thoreau, I try to show that the natural is always already cultural and that a reengagement with nature in itself is the very process of becoming political. In this context, I will examine why Cavell’s Thoreau redirects us from biocentrism to humanism and provocatively turns political education away from anodyne aspirations for coexistence and towards a qualified isolation.

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