Planetary unthinking: Is contemporary ecological theory making near space unsustainable?
Join this event to hear Brad Tabas explore how planetary theory has paradoxically contributed to our ignorance of our planet’s environment.
Planetary unthinking: Is contemporary ecological theory making near space unsustainable?
04 Feb 2026, 17:30 – 19:15
The “planetary turn” in contemporary thought risks reinforcing a dangerous indifference to near space environments. Behind injunctions to care for the planet can often be discerned a moralized agnosia – an active and polemical injunction not to learn about the orbits and planetary-science-enabling infrastructures which surround the Earth. Among humanists, this agnosia has generated a growing fascination with interplanetary futures (e.g., Mars colonization) coupled with dangerous neglect of our very real occupation of near-Earth environments. Through a reconstruction of 20th century continental thought, the speaker traces how planetary theory has paradoxically contributed to our ignorance of our planet’s environment.
This event will be particularly useful to those interested in eco-criticism and planetary theories.
PESGB seminar series
This event is part of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) seminar series. PESGB is a learned society that promotes the study, teaching and application of philosophy of education. Its London Branch hosts seminars every Wednesday in conjunction with the Centre for Philosophy of Education. These seminars are led by national and international scholars in the field, covering a wide range of issues of educational and philosophical concern.
All are welcome to attend.
Related links
Image
NASA on Unsplash.
Brad Tabas
Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Brad Tabas teaches and researches at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris. His philosophical interests range from responsibility in engineering to eco-criticism and space humanities, science fiction and horror.
Further information
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