Conway Philip
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The Historical Ontology of Environment: From the Unity of Nature to the Birth of Geopolitics Philip R. Conway Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of International Politics Aberystwyth University Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................................. 3 ORTHOGRAPHY AND REFERENCING ........................................................................................................................... 5 PART 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 6 1: MATTERS OF SIGNIFICANCE ...................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1: Starting points and parameters .............................................................................................................................. 7 1.2: Constraints and complications ............................................................................................................................ 15 1.3: Chapter précises ................................................................................................................................................ 21 2: THE META-HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENT ............................................................................................................... 27 3: RETHINKING HISTORICAL ONTOLOGY ................................................................................................................. 48 PART 2: THE MAKING OF MILIEU .......................................................................................................... 68 4: “THIS ÆTHERIAL MEDIUM”: MEDIATION FROM NEWTON TO LAMARCK ..................................................... 69 4.1: From whirlpools to sensoria: Newton and his inheritors ......................................................................................... 69 4.2: From fluids to lizards: Lamarck and his detractors ............................................................................................... 83 4.3: Destitute of the means: Denunciations and reclamations ......................................................................................... 93 EXCURSUS A: ONTONOMIC: THE ASSEMBLY OF OBLIGATION .............................................................................. 97 5: “THE TOTAL ENSEMBLE”: ASSOCIATION FROM COMTE TO TARDE .............................................................. 106 5.1: From order to animation: Comte’s positivism ...................................................................................................... 106 5.2: From romance to experiment: Balzac, Taine, Bernard, and Zola .......................................................................... 117 5.3: The phantom milieu: Science against metaphysics ............................................................................................... 126 EXCURSUS B: ONTOTURGIC: THE MANIFOLD OF WORLDS .................................................................................. 137 PART 3: CLIMATE AND COSMOS .......................................................................................................... 145 6: “UNDER A SINGLE SKY”: INCLINATION FROM HIPPOCRATES TO CABANIS ................................................. 146 6.1: From Ouranós to interrelation: Climatic traditions over two millennia ................................................................... 147 6.2: From art to instruction: The climate of Montesquieu ........................................................................................... 163 6.3: This ensemble itself: The demands of the whole .................................................................................................. 176 EXCURSUS C: ONTODESIC: THE PARTAGE OF POSSIBILITY ................................................................................. 181 7: “VEINS OF THE MACROCOSM”: CIRCULATION FROM HALLEY TO HUMBOLDT .......................................... 189 7.1: From Helena to Pennsylvania: The enrolments of naturalism ............................................................................... 190 7.2: From critique to chaos: Herder’s ideas of history ................................................................................................. 197 7.3: Making cosmically comparable: Humboldt’s terrestrial physics ............................................................................. 205 EXCURSUS D: ONTOGRAPHIC: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COSMOS .............................................................. 225 PART 4: ENVIRONMENT’S EMPIRE ....................................................................................................... 233 8: “THE CIRCUM-AMBIENT LIFE-ELEMENT”: VISUALISATION FROM CARLYLE TO SPENCER ........................ 234 8.1: From obscurity to heroarchy: Carlyle’s drama of visuality .................................................................................... 234 8.2: From economy to ethics: Spencer’s philosophy of correspondence ............................................................................ 246 8.3: The imaginary environment: Victorian commonplaces .......................................................................................... 260 EXCURSUS E: ONTOMESIC: THE SITUATION OF CONTRADICTION .................................................................... 262 9: “A DEEP BIOLOGICAL JOY”: DETERMINATION FROM DARWIN TO DU BOIS .............................................. 271 9.1: From selection to cosmism: Darwinian defenders and appropriators ....................................................................... 275 9.2: From specialism to commonplace: A ground of spatial relation .............................................................................. 285 9.3: Satire and possibility: Environment circa 1900 .................................................................................................. 292 EXCURSUS F: ONTOCHRONIC: THE COMPLICATION OF CONDEMNATION ...................................................... 302 10: CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................... 311 SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................. 315 Figures .................................................................................................................................................................. 316 Works .................................................................................................................................................................. 319 2 Acknowledgements I’m tempted to say that “it takes a village” to have written something like this—to have made one’s way though the thickets of life and academic protocol to the point of needing to acknowledge that which has made this passage possible. However, the better image might instead be a whole series of villages, bundled by bonds of various kinds, stretching away into the deepest groves of remembered and unremembered time, each in their own ways and byways ushering, however haphazardly, the bewildered thread of a given wanderer towards the peculiar improbability of their present moment. Such reflections upon abyssal contingencies of the personal past are wont to induce vertigo. However, I can say, simply enough, that I have been lucky to have been amongst the villages that I have. The village of the Aberystwyth University Department of International Politics has been particularly kind to me. I therefore owe a first round of thanks to my friends, comrades, and peers, including Amal Abu-Bakare, Christine Andrä, Renato Sabbagh Bahia, Talwyn Baudu, Karijn van den Berg, Paul Blamire, Ira Bliatka, Charlotte Botfield, Bleddyn Bowen, Matthew Campbell, Quincy Cloet, Lydia Cole, Florian Edelmann, Prithvi Hirani, Katharina Höne, Justa Hopma, Alex Hoseason, Danielle House, Jittipat Poonkham, Sorana Jude, Emma Kast, Mary Keogh, Anna Rolewska, Suzanne Klein Schaarsberg, Marcello de Souza Freitas, Chyatat Supachalasai, Katarina Kušić, Alex Mack, Alistair Markland, Dylan Marshall, Adhemar Mercado Auf der Maur, Krishna Monthathip, Nick Morgan, Desiree Poets, Doug Pryer, Devon Simons, Tom Vaughan, Jana Wattenberg, John Wood, Hon-Min Yau, Danielle Young. These are some of the people who have made this place home over the past few years. As well as the academic faculty of InterPol, and other departments too, I also owe thanks to the support staff, especially Vicki Jones, Donia Richards, Sarah Whitehead, Elaine Lowe, and Sali Hopkins, without whom all sorts of wheels would have long since fallen off. I have benefitted greatly, during my time here, from the wise and benevolent supervision of Inanna Hamati-Ataya, Mark Whitehead, Andrew Linklater, and Iwan Morus. I am particularly grateful to Mark, who saw the project through from beginning to end, and to Inanna, without whom it might not have gotten started in the first place. Countless conversations, comments, prompts, and provocations at various conferences and other events over the past several years have helped me to arrive at my present situation. In particular, I am grateful to those who served as discussants on various draft portions of