Why war in the Age of the Anthropocene?: The dialogue between Freud and Einstein and the question of peace

ABSTRACT

In “Why War?,” Freud wonders whether a dictatorship of reason capable of countering war and the forces of Thanatos will be likely to impose itself. In the age of Anthropocene, the mass phenomena to which this pandemic gives rise shows that this favourable outcome is never definitively acquired, bringing some credence to Freudian skepticism.

KEYWORDS:

• War
• Anthropocene
• pandemia

Notes

1 I describe the affinities between democracy and psychoanalysis in my most recent publication (Stoloff 2018).

2 But who is this “one”? See our critique below.

3 Contrary to Rifkin, it is not certain that global development would actually lead to a genuine public and political space. On this topic, see Mathias (2016, 26).

4 Let us recall that, as for the cosmological wound, planet Earth is not the centre of the universe. As for the biological wound, the human species is but a late link in the chain of the evolution of the species. As for the psychological wound, the ego is not master in its own psychic home because of the existence of the unconscious.

5 Hobbes argues that it is because of self-preservation that the indiviual first renounces aggression and “war of all against all”, as they understand that this would eventually lead to their own destruction.

6 See Lefort (1978, 211–246). In this article, the author shows the conflictual tension between equality and liberty, which permanently menaces the democratic project. See also Arendt (2009).

7 Following Max Weber’s formula, developed by Marcel Gauchet.