‘It is debatable whether the COP negotiations themselves achieve much, given that a global consensus is typically only possible when the wording is so vague as to mean anything, which is closer to meaning nothing than something…What is clear, however, is that COP has been co-opted by the very form of political economy that provoked its existence. Much like Dubai itself, this is the sort of event that only late-stage capitalism might produce—a monument to the branding-industrial complex. One cannot help but sense that in its contradictions and shallow affect, COP is less a cure for what ails us, but rather a symptom of the problem to be cured.’

Science is merely a tool. Tools may be used—and abused—towards this or that end, but they do not determine the end that is chosen.

In this lecture series, David Dusenbury explores Jan Patočka’s Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History. Published in 1975, these were the final works by the mid-twentieth century Czech philosopher and dissident.