An Ontology of Trash: The Disposable and Its Problematic NaturePlastic bags, newspapers, pizza boxes, razors, watches, diapers, toothbrushes ... What makes a thing disposable? Which of its properties allows us to treat it as if it did not matter, or as if it actually lacked matter? Why do so many objects appear to us as nothing more than brief flashes between checkout-line and landfill? In An Ontology of Trash, Greg Kennedy inquires into the meaning of disposable objects and explores the nature of our prodigious refuse. He takes trash as a real ontological problem resulting from our unsettled relation to nature. The metaphysical drive from immanence to transcendence leaves us in an alien world of objects drained of meaningful physical presence. Consequently, they become interpreted as beings that somehow essentially lack being, and exist in our technological world only to disappear. Kennedy explores this problematic nature and looks for possibilities of salutary change. |
Contents
1 Waste | 1 |
2 The Body | 23 |
3 Food | 55 |
4 The City | 89 |
5 Trash | 121 |
6 Human Extinction | 157 |
Before the End | 183 |
Notes | 189 |
| 207 | |
| 213 | |
Other editions - View all
An Ontology of Trash: The Disposable and Its Problematic Nature Greg Kennedy No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
absence activity appears basic become begin being-in-the-world bodily body called capacities careful chapter clear commodities concealment concepts concern constitutes consumer consumption convenience course culture Dasein death depends device disclosive disposable earth effects embodied engagement essence essential existence existential experience expresses fact failure feast feel finite finitude future gives hand Heidegger Heidegger’s human human body human extinction industrial interpretation involves kind lack latter less limits live logical manifest manner material means metaphysical mind mode mortal nature neediness object ontological ourselves packaging person phenomena phenomenon physical possibility practice present problem production promise question rational reason relation remains requires reveal seems sense sensitive significance simply skill society taking temporal term things thinking thought tion tradition trash true truth turn understanding University urban waste worldly