Session 1. Tuesday, May 31, 9:00 – 12:30
Globalization and Inequality: The Ethics, Politics and Economics of Global Mental Health
“Liberty” in the Anthropocene
Peter G. Brown, McGill University
The idea of “liberty” as it is used in current politics and economics was fashioned in the 18th and 19th centuries before the idea of the Anthropocene was even foreseen, except perhaps by a few. At the dawn of the third millennium three development require that we rethink, re-ground, and perhaps even reject this concept. These developments are: 1) the emergence of humanity as a geologic force—the Anthropocene; 2) the discovery and refinement of the laws of thermodynamics beginning in the early 19th century and culminating in new discoveries at the end of the 20th century; and 3) the emergence of a new “creation” story based on current cosmology mainly incompatible with the account found in the Book of Genesis — on which much of the edifice of Western Civilization rests. This paper explores the implications of this “perfect storm.”
Peter G. Brown is a Professor in the Departments of Natural Resource Sciences and Geography, and the School of Environment at McGill University. He is principal investigator of Economics for the Anthropocene, a graduate training and research partnership supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and twenty-five international university, government, and non-governmental organizations (e4a-net.org). His most recent book is Ecological Economics for the Anthropocene: An Emerging Paradigm, written and co-edited with Peter Timmerman. He is a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Club of Rome.
