Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Anthropocene: New Geological Era or New Biophysical

Version 1 : Received: 30 July 2021 / Approved: 2 August 2021 / Online: 2 August 2021 (09:33:22 CEST)

How to cite: Ortega, J.L. Anthropocene: New Geological Era or New Biophysical. Preprints 2021, 2021080008. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202108.0008.v1 Ortega, J.L. Anthropocene: New Geological Era or New Biophysical. Preprints 2021, 2021080008. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202108.0008.v1

Abstract

The Anthropocene has created a new cartography where various discursive levels are intertwined. It unites two fields of knowledge: geology and anthropology. In the 19th century, Romanticism challenged the separation between natural sciences and spirit sciences. With the Anthropocene a geological era is established, but with an epistemological dimension: environmental catastrophes are not a passive "object", they become an agent of social and political change. Images of the world (Weltbild) turn nature into an animated whole that challenges the dual vision: observer and observed. There is no nature without "observer", nor geology without anthropology. The Anthropocene modifies the foundations of our view of the world where we had excluded life. This is how concepts such as symbiogenesis, homeostasis, etc., which make visible and try to explain phenomena that are otherwise inexplicable. The Naturwissenschaft by J.W. Goethe is a point of support, with all these ideas that develop in the 20th century and anticipate the Anthropocene term of the 21th century. While the concepts of "belief" and "science" continue to be sharpened, rehabilitating "old quarrels" around anthropology, cosmology, theology, etc. The dignity of man is at stake.

Keywords

Anthropocene; Noosphere; Biosphere; Morphology; Metamorphosis; Geophysiology

Subject

Business, Economics and Management, Accounting and Taxation

Comments (1)

Comment 1
Received: 12 August 2021
Commenter: Anna Lluís Gavaldà
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment: El artículo nos describe otra historia del Antropoceno (la era del cambio climático). Lo habitual es describir al hombre como una fuerza capaz de alterar la biosfera, la geología (el ciclo del oxígeno, carbono, nitrógeno...) y aquí lo plantea al revés: la geología modifica la sociedad, la política, y la visión del mundo. En este planteo se solapan disciplinas distantes como la química atmosférica, la biología, la geología, la cosmología, la antropología, la filosofía...
En este texto entrelaza diversas tesis a veces opuestas como la teoría de la evolución de Darwin, con la de Lovelock y Margulis: no es el hombre o la vida la que se adapta a los cambios geológicos, sino la geología que muestra cómo acoger a la vida. Los elementos necesarios para originar la vida, no se encuentran de forma inerte en la naturaleza , sino que son productos dinámicos de la propia vida. .
El artículo intercala autores, épocas y problemáticas explosivas como: las tradiciones oriente & occidente; Buda & Zoroastro; el mundo de la vida & el mundo de la ciencia del sXII; árabe & cristiano, visiones pesimistas & optimistas. La historia del hombre -centro del cosmos- se mueve como un péndulo entre visiones mecánicas, reduccionistas, sistémicas, espirituales...
En la narrativa del Antropoceno, se hace una descripción sociológica, no geológica, es el cambio climático que transforma la sociedad, la política y la cosmovisión del mundo. Hay un método científico para conocer el mundo, pero no lo hay para conocerse a uno mismo y falta conocer este yo, que ahora impide que cambie. Falta una metamorfosis del hombre mismo. En este relato en lugar de centrarse en el método o en las normas para entender el Antropoceno, se centra en el cambio de las normas, en su supresión. La teoría social sirve para explicar el cambio, pero nos deja sin coordenadas de referencia para entender este cambio, por lo que deja de servir. Es una oportunidad para dejar de obedecer a la autoridades, doctrinas y teorías y pasar a ser creativos.
Creativo, es el autor, a quien invitaría a desarrollar más el texto en futuros artículos.

The article describes another story of the Anthropocene (the age of climate change). The usual thing is to describe man as a force capable of altering the biosphere, geology (the cycle of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen...) and here he puts it, in the other way around: geology modifies society, politics, and the vision of the world. In this approach we found distant disciplines such as atmospheric chemistry, biology, geology, cosmology, anthropology, philosophy...
In this text appear several opposing terms, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, with that of Lovelock and Margulis: it is not man or life that adapts to geological changes, but is the geology that shows how to welcome life. The elements necessaries to originate life are not found inertly in nature, but are dynamic products of life itself. .
The article intersperses authors, eras and explosive problems such as: east & west traditions; Buddha & Zoroaster; the world of life & the world of science of sXII; Arab & Christian, pessimistic & optimistic views. The history of man - the center of the cosmos - moves like a pendulum between mechanical, reductionist, systemic, spiritual visions...
In the Anthropocene narrative, a sociological, not a geological, description is made, it is climate change that transforms society, politics and the worldview of the world. There is a scientific method to know the world, but there is not to know oneself and we need to know this self, which now prevents it from changing. It lacks a metamorphosis of man himself. In this story instead of focusing on the method or the norms for understanding the Anthropocene, he focuses on changing the norms, on their suppression. Social theory serves to explain change, but it leaves us without reference coordinates to understand this change, so it ceases to serve. It is an opportunity to stop obeying authorities, doctrines and theories and to become creative.
Creative, it is the author, whom I would invite to develop the text further in futures papers
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