Paradise lost

Self-cultivation in the ruins of the anthropocene

Authors

• Antti Saari Tampereen yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3777-6948
• Jan Varpanen Tampereen yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7859-1926

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.129639

Keywords:

educational philosophy, environmental education, self-cultivation, materialism, anthropocene

Abstract

The article examines the ontological basis of self-cultivation within the framework of anthropocene. One of the root causes of the ecological disasters that characterise our time is often located in discourses of environmental education in human alienation from nature. The task of education is then defined as overcoming this alienation through various pedagogical means that contribute to restoring harmony and integrity between human and non-human nature. In contrast to these perspectives, the article draws on the ontological premise of so-called dialectical materialism, according to which alienation characterises everything that exists, making harmony with nature impossible to achieve. The subject, like nature, is always dislocated and incompatible with itself. Using ruin aesthetics as an example, the article describes the origins and process of self-cultivation in relation to a world that is not structured as a coherent whole.