The ontological consequences of Copernicus: global being in the planetary world

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Turnbull, N., 2006. The ontological consequences of Copernicus: global being in the planetary world. Theory Culture & Society, 23 (1), pp. 125-139. ISSN 0263-2764

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263276406063232

Abstract

This article argues that contemporary space exploration, in producing visual representations of the planetary Earth for terrestrial consumption, has engendered a shift in the way the Earth - as terra firma - is both experienced and conceived. The article goes on to suggest that this shift is a key, but still largely tacit presupposition, underlying contemporary discourses on globalization and cultural cosmopolitanization. However, a close reading of some of the texts that make up the canon of 20th-century European philosophy shows that this idea of a ‘deterritorialized’ planetary Earth challenges some basic presuppositions of that canon: especially its use of the pre-reflective experience of terra firma as a tropic site of intological and normative grounds. This article examines the way in which contemporary Western European philosophy - and intellectual culture generally - has responded to this challenge: and offers Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of the Earth as a ‘surface without territory’ as the most intellectually and ethically viable conception of the Earth in the age of ‘planetary deterritorialization’.

Item Type:

Journal article

Publication Title:

Theory Culture & Society

Creators:

Turnbull, N.

Publisher:

Sage

Date:

2006

Volume:

Number: