2025 De Carle Distinguished Lecture series

Presented by Associate Professor Benjamin McKean (PhD, MA Princeton, BA Harvard)

Is hope a prerequisite to political action against climate catastrophe? Is despair of making no difference a major obstacle to such action? Many assume the answer to both questions is yes. Advocates like Andreas Malm argue that we need to demonstrate the efficacy of individual action today to thwart despair, while philosophers like Allen Thompson draw from Jonathan Lear’s conception of “radical hope” to argue that we have reason to be hopeful about a future beyond our present understanding. But these approaches to generating hope don’t engage effectively with our political context, in which few people experience political efficacy. And they lack an adequate moral psychology, which I show through an analysis of Malm’s critique of pacifism. Unfortunately, despair is an appropriate response to our circumstances. In place of trying to generate hope, I argue that we need a more present-oriented approach to motivating people to act for climate justice that doesn’t depend on uncertain future effects.

Livestream

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About Associate Professor Benjamin McKean

Ben is a political theorist whose research concerns global justice, climate change, populism and the relationship between theory and practice.

Currently at The Ohio State University and formerly a Harper-Schmidt Fellow at the University of Chicago, Ben is researching the inadequacy of existing political concepts for addressing climate change. His book, Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2020) argues that people subject to unjust institutions and practices should be disposed to solidarity with others who are also subject to them – even when those relations cross state borders.

2025 series

Our lecture series starts on Tuesday 25 March, and concludes on Tuesday 6 May, as follows:

• Tuesday, 25 March: Is despair an obstacle to achieving climate justice?
• Wednesday, 2 April: Climate change as a challenge to theodicy and other narratives of progress*
• Tuesday, 8 April: Can popular sovereignty help us avoid climate catastrophe?
• Monday, 14 April: Does calling climate change a “global” problem erase indigenous politics?
• Tuesday, 29 April: Does addressing climate change require us to shift our understanding of “the market”?
• Tuesday, 6 May: Reorienting our way of seeing nature as a path to solidarity

Venue: Hutton Theatre, Tūhura Otago Museum, but *Wednesday, 2 April held in Burns 2
All lectures run 5:30–7pm. Staff, students, and members of the public are welcome to attend.