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

Author

Listed:
  • Jerome Ballet

    (Passages - UB - Université de Bordeaux - ENSAP Bordeaux - École nationale supérieure d'architecture et du paysage de Bordeaux - UBM - Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Damien Bazin

  • Emmanuel Petit

    (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

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, 2022. "The Ecology of Fear and Climate Change: A Pragmatist Point of View," Post-Print hal-03603042, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03603042
    DOI: 10.3197/096327122x16452897197711
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