The Human Condition in the Anthropocene: Roundtable Discussion

In this roundtable discussion moderated by Gary Tomlinson, panelists and audience members discuss ideas from Dipesh Chakrabarty’s two Tanner lectures, together titled “The Human Condition in the Anthropocene.” This conversation occurred on February 20, 2015, as part of the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale. The discussion opens with Daniel Lord Smail’s comments on the aesthetics of Chakrabarty’s two lectures. Smail proposes the case of bovine emissions and the discourse regarding their role in climate change as a way into questioning the tension between homo and anthropos in Chakrabarty’s lectures. Michael Warner signals his appreciation for Chakrabarty’s efforts to think through environmental issues before coming to a politics of them, and extends his critique to the ways climate scientists and activists jump to normative and prescriptive pronouncements on what “we” must do to fight environmental crises. Finally, Wai Chee Dimock moves the conversation closer to that political realm by asking Chakrabarty questions that bear on how to mobilize more people to care about climate change and what that has to do with human optics, or the ability to gain the necessary perspective on a global phenomenon that is both cultural and biological. Dipesh Chakrabarty is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Law at the University of Chicago. Gary Tomlinson is John Hay Whitney Professor of Music and the Humanities and Director of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale. Wai Chee Dimock is William Lampson Professor of English and American Studies. Daniel Lord Smail is Professor of History at Harvard University. Michael Warner is Seymour H. Knox Professor of English and Professor of American Studies.