Project description
Revealing early modern ecological thought
Environmental concerns are often considered a modern issue, with terms like ecology or sustainability emerging only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Linking the emerging of the word to contemporary developments has led to ignoring earlier philosophical discussions. NEWWORLD challenges this historiographical narrative by devising a method for identifying ecological reflections in the early modern period. Through an innovative methodology, the ERC-funded NEWWORLD project explores the philosophy of early modern ecology by connecting present-day environmental terminology to historical texts. The project will produce a multi-volume philosophical history of environmental care, accompanied by an exhibition featuring 3D modelling of early modern utopias. The project aims to redefine the intersection of the history of philosophy and contemporary ecological discussions.
Objective
This project undertakes the first comprehensive investigation of early modern ecology. NEWWORLD counters the standard historiographical argument that ecological concern is a recent phenomenon. A key element in that claim is the assumption that the terminology of environmental care is recent: the term 'ecology' was invented in the 19th century by Ernst Haeckel; 'sustainability' is a 20th-century coinage; 'the environment' was used for the first time in English by Thomas Carlyle in 1827. Yet, these terms that now help to define ecological sensibilities arose from long-lasting debates. The leading claim of this project is that early modernity was a particularly fertile period for ecological reflection. NEWWORLD proposes an innovative methodology to capture the breadth and philosophical substance of early modern ecological debates: it proceeds from present-day terms to construct terminological and conceptual constellations in early modern texts. It uses a technique that historians (of philosophy) label 'controlled anachronism', and which this project aims to fully exploit for the first time on a large scale. The objectives, subdivided into the four main areas 'Environment', 'Pollution', 'Sustainability', and 'Ecological Justice', involve tracing a symbiotic connection between metaphysical, natural-philosophical, religious, and ethical ideas. NEWWORLD will both reveal the specificities of early modern thought on ecological matters, and pioneer a dialogue with ecological debates as we know them today. The project's main output will be a multi-volume philosophical history of environmental care in the early modern period. This will be complemented by the curation of an exhibition, featuring 3D models of cosmographical images and projections of early modern plans for ideal cities, showing them to be laboratories of ecological views. NEWWORLD seeks to offer a new paradigm for the intervention of the history of philosophy in present-day debates on ecology, and beyond.
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Keywords
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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27100 Pavia
Italy
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