Jooseppi Räikkönen

Thesis: 'More Light Than Heat: Ecology and the Enlightenment'

My thesis investigates prominent conceptualisations of human-nature relations in enlightenment philosophy, especially in the work of Immanuel Kant. I aim to show, through a reading of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Teleological Judgement, that most prominent critics of the enlightenment miss their mark because of a mistaken focus on instrumental reason. I further aim to show that Kant already anticipated and rejected many of the alternatives offered to this conception in contemporary political ecology, especially ones that wish to “re-enchant” nature – be it through attributing agency or inherent value to it – through his critiques of pantheism and physicotheology.

• Kant and Post-Kantian Philosophy
• Political Ecology
• Environmental History
• History of Economic Thought
• European Politics