IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envval/v32y2023i1p5-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Ecology of Fear and Climate Change: A Pragmatist Point of View

Author

Listed:
  • Jerome Ballet
  • Damien Bazin
  • Emmanuel Petit

Abstract

The ecology of fear has become a common rhetoric in efforts to support climate mitigation. The thesis of the collapse is an extreme version, asserting the inevitable collapse of the world. Fear, then, becomes the ultimate emotion for spurring action. In this article, drawing on the work of the pragmatist John Dewey, we show that fear is an ambiguous emotion. Dewey stressed the quality of an emotion. Following his reasoning, this article draws a distinction between intense and moderate fear. Intense fear annihilates action, while moderate fear fulfils the conditions for an emotion of quality (in the Deweyan sense), which enables action. For this reason, the thesis of the collapse must be rejected, while an ecology of fear, drawing on moderate fear, may be maintained.

Suggested Citation

  • Jerome Ballet & Damien Bazin & Emmanuel Petit, 2023. "The Ecology of Fear and Climate Change: A Pragmatist Point of View," Transfer: Environmental Values, , vol. 32(1), pages 5-24, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envval:v:32:y:2023:i:1:p:5-24
    DOI: 10.3197/096327122X16452897197711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3197/096327122X16452897197711
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3197/096327122X16452897197711?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envval:v:32:y:2023:i:1:p:5-24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.