Geopraxis and Historical Materialism: For a Humanistic Environmentalism

This essay reassesses the connection between materialism and history, namely historical materialism, as a contribution to the ontological turn in science studies that avoids post-modern relativism and its identitarian consequences in times of post-truth. In order to do so, Rosa Luxemburg’s empathic materialism and Antonio Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis are reassessed as key references for political epistemology and political ecology. In particular, they here serve to introduce the concept of geopraxis, an articulation of the environmental-anthropic question of the Anthropocene resting on two philosophical pillars: historicity and agency.