On the occasion of its translation into English, Corine Pelluchon will present her book on the Enlightenment in the Ecological Age (Ethics International Press, 2025). The volume’s abstract reads as follows:

"How can we defend the Enlightenment today? Does its ideal of emancipation still hold meaning? In a context marked by the reemergence of nationalism and fascism, environmental and health crises, and rising inequality, we cannot be content to invoke the Enlightenment as an immutable spirit.

To confront the danger of our civilisation’s collapse without abandoning philosophical and scientific rationality, while bearing in mind our dependence on nature and on other living creatures: such is the aim of this book. In opposition to contemporary manifestations of the “Counter-Enlightenment” – those who seek to establish a hierarchical society, whether drawing on religion or appealing to transhumanism– and in response to post-modern accusations that all universalism is hegemonic, we must propose a new Enlightenment. One which requires us to visit anew the history of the Enlightenment and to resist the amputation of reason, now reduced to an instrument for calculation and exploitation.

The objective of this new Enlightenment and its project for an ecological and democratic society is to identify and surmount the Schema of domination – over others and over nature, both within and outside the self – which expresses a contempt for the body and for vulnerability, and to create new reference points to help us take on the challenges with which we are all faced. This Enlightenment in the ecological age represents an alternative to past and present forms of Counter-Enlightenment."

Reading materials: Introduction, in : C. Pelluchon, Enlightenment in the Ecological Age (Ethics International Press, 2025).