This paper argues that our present conceptual resources are inadequate to the task of understanding and intervening into the ecological, political, and economic crises confronting us today. Enabling, inclusive, and effective social imaginaries, that conceive of all beings as part of and dependent on nature, can and should be promoted. Spinoza’s philosophy of the imagination, embodiment, and affect is shown to be apposite to this endeavor. Further, his misunderstood notion of ‘God of Nature’ is presented as a largely unrecognized conceptual innovation crucial to understanding and constructively addressing the human condition today.
This article examines the conflict between eco-social imaginaries through the lens of Sellars’s distinction between the manifest and the scientific images. It first addresses the debate on the “end of nature,” questioning the advisability of abandoning the concept of nature. Drawing on Hegel, Benjamin, and niche construction theory, it argues that a dialectical account of the organism-environment relation can complement the compositionist perspective advanced by Bruno Latour and further developed by Donna Haraway. Finally, the Anthropocene is interpreted as an emblematic case requiring a dialectical rethinking of the tension between anthropocentric and compositionist eco-imaginaries.
