The Free Academcy: Václav Bělohradský – Will Democracy Survive the Anthropocene Epoch?
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 13, 2025, 19:00 – 21:00
The political religion of the past two centuries has been the belief in unlimited economic growth, based on ever faster technological development, which was to bring about the “emancipation of man from all the constraints and obligations” imposed by his spatio-temporal location on planet Earth. In the Anthropocene Epoch, democratic constitutions need to be based on a declaration of dependence on our earthly home, on a new social contract that will enshrine humanity’s obligation to respect planetary limits in its activities as a new global categorical imperative. In the post-factual environment of digital shallows, why is it not possible to form – through democratic means – a majority of opinion capable of politically representing our dependence on the Earth and subordinating economic growth to the planetary limits of human activity? Why are we so powerless in the face of the tyranny of the growth economy?
Professor Václav Bělohradský is a leading Czech philosopher and sociologist. He lectured at the University of Trieste in the past and today works at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague. He has published several books in the Czech Republic and beyond, most recently Čas pléthokracie (Time of Plethocracy) (65. pole publishing house, second edition 2022).