2020/04/02 by Patricia MacCormack · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · Medicine · #Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre #Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism #Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy #Spectacle #Aesthetics #Immanence #Materiality (auditing) #Vitalism #Politics #Sociology #Environmental ethics #History #Political science #Law #Epistemology #Philosophy #Medicine
paper · doi:10.1080/08164649.2020.1791689
openalex publication_date 2020/04/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/05
Extinctionism and efilism were once considered lunatic fringe movements but are increasingly popular. They focus on immanence, care and prevention of life but are maligned as being death cults. Covertly the protection of the yet-to-be lives over those of citizens, the rise in suicide, murderous political acts from welfare cuts to genocide and individually driven massacres are understood as aberrations. The status of death itself is now in question over its Semiocapitalisation – a signifier or spectacle. This article expresses the crucial nature of materiality in thinking death and the various trajectories of the antagonistic relationship the human has with death which could (and should in certain circumstances) be loving, vitalist and as prevention and cessation of life could offer a future open to nature and the potentialisation of a natural epoch.