Derrida and Inheritance in Environmental Ethics - The Half-Lives of Responsibility

This book argues for the necessity of a re-evaluation of our thinking about responsibly relating to future generations in the context of environmental philosophy. Using long-term nuclear waste disposal as its paradigmatic case, this book makes the case that the predominant mode of thinking the future in terms of continuity and repetition of the present requires a critique informed by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in order to think responsibility adequately. The book begins by surveying contemporary accounts of intergenerational responsibility before outlining the specifics of nuclear waste disposal policy. With these stakes established, the contributions of Jacques Derrida to future-oriented ethics are introduced. These include discussions of communication across contexts, the relationship between inheritance and responsibility, and the political imperatives that result from this critique. This book concludes by arguing for an intergenerational environmental policy that rejects policy and infrastructural projects that depend on the present reproducing itself indefinitely.



Michael Peterson is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. His work has appeared in Eco-Deconstruction: Derrida and Environmental Philosophy (Fordham 2018) and Toxic Timescapes: Examining Toxicity across Time and Space (Ohio University Press 2023).