Author Description

The Planetary is a technoscientific object, a philosophical event, and a call to new forms of governance. This volume introduces the Berggruen Institute’s interpretation of this emergent analytical and political category. As the Covid pandemic and the climate crisis have made abundantly clear, humans are profoundly embedded in Earth’s intricate biogeochemical systems. At the same time we are evolving and constructing a planetary exoskeleton of sensory apparati and advanced artificial intelligences that make those systems visible and foreseeable, stimulating new questions for scientists and philosophers alike. These realizations and developments disrupt the idea of the monadic human individual that for centuries formed the cornerstone of both liberal political theory and Western social science. Berggruen Institute thinkers here consider the consequences — for technology and science, for policy and for philosophy — of the emergence of the Planetary. With an extensive list of companion readings, this volume represents an effort to further the intercultural discussion of perhaps the most critical questions confronting humanity as a species today.