Overview

In Climate Crisis and the Kleptocene: On The Commodification of Sentience the author argues that capitalism is not merely a system of economic exchange, but an ideology of value that, in virtue of the existential demand for permanent growth, must reduce other forms of value—moral, civic, and aesthetic—to exchange value. The ontology of capital accumulation can neither afford nor accede to any exemption to its fundamentally kleptocratic logic of commodification. Thus, among its most significant originary acts is to nullify the value of sentience as an obstacle to commodification. A number of well-known environmental writers including David Wallace-Wells, Michael Mann, Gary Francione, and Jason Moore, however, miss this critical element of the ontology of capital and thereby end up either defending reformist incarnations of capital conquest or, as Andreas Malm puts it, offering “hybridist” and ultimately self-defeating accounts of the history of capitalism. Malm’s own realist account, however, does not go quite far enough to see beyond human chauvinism, down to the roots of the logic of commodification—namely, that nothing sentient or non-sentient, living or nonliving, organic or inorganic is irreducible to the exchange value of an ideology whose essence is “grow or die.”

Full Product Details

Author:   Wendy Lynne Lee
Publisher:   Lexington Books
Imprint:   Lexington Books
ISBN:  

9781793607966

ISBN 10:   1793607966
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   15 October 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: “Watching as It All Goes Down the Drain” Chapter 1: The Disarticulation of Value Chapter 2: Normalizing the Disarticulation of Value Across Species: Response to David Wallace-Wells Chapter 3: Commodification of Sentience in the Maintenance of Structural Inequality: More of David Wallace-Wells Chapter 4: Paving the Road to the Kleptocene: The Salvation Capitalism of Michael Mann’s The New Climate War Chapter 5: How Animal Rights Ethics Sustains the Commodification of Sentience: Response to Gary Francione and Richard Epstein Chapter 6: “Webs of Life” and Death in the Kleptocene: “As food,” the “Four Cheaps,” and Jason Moore’s (Unwitting) Invitation to the Geo-Logic of the “Black Anthropocene” Conclusion: Terror, Urgency, Empathy.

Reviews

Lee's powerful book offers a searing critique of capitalism, exposing its inherent destructiveness. With sharp analysis and clarity, the author calls for a revolutionary change, rejecting reform as inadequate in the face of capitalism's deep-rooted exploitation and commodification. Lee dismantles myths that sustain capitalist systems and makes a compelling case for a future that can only be achieved through radical transformation. A timely must-read for anyone who worries about our planet. --Lucien van Liere, Utrecht University

Author Information

Wendy Lynne Lee is professor of philosophy at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg.

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