Mortification as Negentropic Instrument: Toward a Transformative Psychoeducation for Biophilic Socialist Humanism

• In Event: Marx SIG Paper Session

Abstract

I develop a pedagogical conception of mortification as a psychoeducational negentropic instrument for producing a revolutionary biophilic character type in learners. First, I recount an experience I had in 2019 while organizing with Extinction Rebellion NYC, namely, my learning about the self-immolation of climate activist David Buckel in Brooklyn. Next, I develop René Arcilla’s concept of mortification, or the means by which an encounter with another human being may strip us of our very identity, by connecting it with Bernard Stiegler’s notion of the negentropic instrument, or a philosophical practice that can counter the entropic tendencies of the Anthropocene, especially by expanding the possibilities for radical social change. I suggest that this can constitute an education for ecological socialist humanism.

Author

• Rory Varrato, Teachers College, Columbia University