[Themaintainers] Talk: Brooke Rudow "The Imperatives of Environmental Responsibility: To Maintain and Repair" (Maintenance & Philosophy SIG, Thursday 9th April 18-1915 UTC+1)

[mark young]

Dear All,

We’re pleased to announce the next session of the SPT Maintenance and
Philosophy of Technology Special Interest Group on Thursday 9th April
(18-1915 UTC+1). In this session, we’re excited to welcome back Brooke
Rudow (University of Central Florida) who’ll be presenting her new research
on the relationship between environmental ethics and maintenance and
repair. Her talk aims to examine a variety of themes within philosophy of
technology, ecofeminism and new materialism in order to elucidate new
connections between environmental responsibility and the practice of
maintenance and repair. You’ll find the zoom link and abstract below. If
you'd like a link for this talk, send me a quick email at
mark at markthomasyoung.net

Best,
Mark

Mark Thomas Young
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Oslo
https://uio.academia.edu/MarkThomasYoung

*The Imperatives of Environmental Responsibility: To Maintain and Repair*

Brooke Rudow (University of Central Florida)

Thursday 9th April (1800 - 1915 UTC+1)

*Abstract:* Maintenance and repair are gaining attention in engineering and
the philosophy of technology, among other disciplines. However,
environmental ethics has been slow on the uptake. Where the concepts do
appear, ‘maintenance’ generally refers to maintenance of ecosystems,
wildlife and plant populations, or climate. ‘Repair’ refers to repairing
harms to nature, repairing nature itself, or sometimes moral repair. Rarely
in environmental ethics do these terms refer to the maintenance and repair
of *things.* Here I argue that participating in such practices ought to be
fundamental imperatives of environmental responsibility. Rooting my
argument in Hans Jonas’  *The Imperative of Responsibility *(1985), I begin
with his future-oriented theory of responsibility, which establishes and
clarifies an ethical demand to take care of our world. Jonas argues that
traditional ethics is ill-equipped to handle the conditions created by our
accelerating technological developments. We need a robust, forward-looking
sense of responsibility that instills in us a *feeling* of responsibility
that has the force to motivate action. For Jonas, the parent-child
relationship is a paradigmatic model, but this relationship is not easily
mapped onto our relationships with *things*. Yet, as Steven Vogel
(2015) argues, we must take responsibility for the things we have made.
Thus, in the second section, I consider what could motivate such a feeling
for technological objects. Freya Mathews (2003) promotes a new kind of
materialism, one based on love rather than commodity consumption. Loving
matter, she argues, fundamentally reorients our relationships with the
world, engendering care and responsibility toward a broadened host of moral
others. This turn to love is necessary, she thinks, for any genuine
environmental ethic. However, her invitation to love requires panpsychism,
a shift from matter as dull mechanism to a materiality infused with spirit.
While I take up Mathews’ view that loving matter is a necessary step toward
Jonas’ *feeling*, I will argue that her panpsychism is unnecessary. Loving
things is not about believing they have a share in the psychical features
we assign to humans and (some) other animals. Love comes from doing things
that generate and reinforce that love. Loving something means caring for it *in
practice*. Finally, I turn to Albert Borgmann (1987) and focal practices.
As practices that center on a *thing*, often a simple technology, they draw
together bodily engagement, skill acquisition, sociality, and participation
with seasonality and materiality. Borgmann argues that human flourishing is
facilitated through dedication to focal practices, but I think we can go
even further. As distinct and ethically significant types of focal
practice, maintenance and repair not only contribute to human flourishing
but play a central role in developing care and love for those things that
we fix and, thereby, a feeling of responsibility toward them. These
practices work *against* waste, accumulation, and neglect, and work *for* the
establishment of a world that is meant to last over generations.
Contributing to the flourishing of our environments, both built and
natural, they ought to be elevated to ethical imperatives of environmental
responsibility.

(In order to avoid confusion regarding the timing of the talks - the
following table clarifies when the talks begin in different locations: please
note that due to daylight savings the timing may differ from previous weeks)


New York:         13:00

San Francisco: 10:00

London:            18:00

Amsterdam:      19:00
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