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Between Nature and Artifice: Hannah Arendt and Environmental Politics

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Between Nature and Artifice: Hannah Arendt and Environmental Politics Between Nature and Artifice: Hannah Arendt and Environmental Politics By Ryan Edgar Butler B.A., Vancouver Island University 2014 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Sociology With a Concentration in Cultural, Social and Political Thought © Ryan Edgar Butler, 2017 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Between Nature and Artifice: Hannah Arendt and Environmental Politics by Ryan Edgar Butler B.A., Vancouver Island University, 2014 Supervisory Committee Dr. Warren Magnusson, (Department of Political Science) Co-Supervisor Dr. William Little (Department of Sociology) Co-Supervisor Dr. Martha McMahon (Department of Sociology) Departmental Member iii Abstract This thesis examines Hannah Arendt’s phenomenological theory of action (vita activa) to assess its capacity to accommodate environmental politics within its conception of the public sphere. Critics have argued that vita activa’s triadic structure excludes social questions—in which Arendt includes environmental concerns—from political action. In fact, her writings explicitly seek to shield politics from social incursions—a phenomenon she terms “the rise of the social.” However, this criticism overlooks the distinction Arendt draws between politics and governance, politics being a manifestation of freedom and governance the management of necessity. By arguing for vita activa’s ability to accommodate contemporary environmental concerns, this reading seeks to promote Arendt’s conception of freedom within the emerging green political tradition, for her understanding of politics recognizes its existential function in creating identities for both communities and individuals. To pose an environmental challenge to Arendt’s thought, this thesis employs some of the key themes and conceptions from four prominent green theorists: John Dryzek, Robyn Eckersley, Andrew Dobson, and John Meyer. In relation to these theorists, it will be argued that vita activa’s form of politics carries the possibility of allowing environmentalism to appear within the public sphere’s political contents without contradicting its triadic boundaries. To develop an environmentally sustainable society, political communities must create new narratives for bridging the divide between their built and natural environments, a process that requires the existential power of Arendtian politics. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgment ................................................................................................................ v Dedication .......................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Arendt’s Environmental Silence ..................................................................................... 4 Arendtian Environmental Literature ............................................................................. 11 Overview of Thesis Chapters ........................................................................................ 21 Chapter One: The Active Life (Vita Activa) .................................................................... 28 The Human Condition................................................................................................... 28 Labour ....................................................................................................................... 29 Work ......................................................................................................................... 33 Action ........................................................................................................................ 42 Chapter Two: Theorizing Nature ...................................................................................... 58 The Politics in Green Theory ........................................................................................ 58 Dryzek’s Typology ................................................................................................... 59 Robyn Eckersley’s Ecologism .................................................................................. 74 Dobson’s Ecological Ideology .................................................................................. 78 Meyer’s Green Dialectics ......................................................................................... 86 Chapter Three: Arendtian Environmentalism ................................................................. 103 Nature and The Human Condition .............................................................................. 103 Nature ...................................................................................................................... 104 Sustainability........................................................................................................... 108 Responding to Green Theory ...................................................................................... 117 Ideological Ecologism ............................................................................................ 117 Western Anthropocentrism ..................................................................................... 121 Green Representation .............................................................................................. 126 Political Judgement ................................................................................................. 130 Dialectical Nature-Politics Relationship ................................................................. 133 The Council System ................................................................................................ 139 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 147 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 152 v Acknowledgment The inspiration for this thesis comes from Dr. Mark Blackell from Vancouver Island University. Through a directed reading course, Dr. Blackell guided me through Hannah Arendt’s thought and raised the question of Arendtian environmentalism. Since then, my thinking has been heavily influenced by her writings, and I am grateful for the insights this has provided me throughout my academic journey. Thank you Dr. Blackell. From the University of Victoria, I would like to thank Dr. Peyman Vahabzadeh for his informative reflections on Arendt’s notion of essential violence and its effect on contemporary environmental degradation. I would like to thank Dr. Warren Magnusson, my co-supervisor, whose comments and corrections ensured that my thesis remained manageable and focused. Thank you, Dr. Magnusson. I would not have completed this project without your support and encouragement. And, I would like to thank Dr. William Little and Dr. Martha McMahon, my remaining committee members, for their support and consideration. Without your engagement, this project would have never been completed. vi Dedication To Nadine and Kierstyn Butler for their love and support. 1 Between Nature and Artifice It is quite conceivable that the modern age—which began with such an unprecedented and promising outburst of human activity—may end in the deadliest, more sterile passivity history has ever known. — Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition Introduction As humanity enters the Anthropocene, we are witnessing the end of Nature. Bill McKibben forcefully makes this argument by pointing to the environmental impacts of industrial societies—via greenhouse gas emissions, waste-water pollutants, toxic fertilizers, et cetera— which have seeped into every remaining region of the wilderness.1 Consequently, untrammeled ecosystems no longer exist and nature invariably bears anthropogenic scars. In aggregate, these industrial effects have produced the global phenomenon of climate change,2 which now constitutes humanity’s greatest existential threat, for unlike the threat of nuclear warfare, this crisis is inevitable. In addition to endangering humanity’s material conditions, the associated environmental effects of climate change threaten to undermine longstanding societal forms, such as state sovereignty, national borders, and political citizenship. In response, western political thought has begun grappling with the fallibility of its foundational assumptions regarding human/nature relations. Of these, the environmental theorist John Dryzek persuasively articulates two of the most problematic with reference to our inheritance from the ancient Greeks: The Cornucopian and the Promethean assumptions. The Cornucopian is the belief that nature constitutes an unlimited resource pool for human consumption since its content is self-correcting 1 Bill McKibben, The End of Nature (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006),
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