Why a philosophy of the circular economy?

We all need to talk about it, for one thing, and get our thoughts straight

Circular economy seems to be a more technical subject - about how we circulate atoms and how the monetary system works with that circulation. We might ask ourselves why have we embarked on describing the philosophy of the circular economy?

The circular economy for us is one of the plausible off-ramps away from material-use expansion and economic growth. It is therefore salient to major changes in our lives coming up. Now: our emotions are highly connected to our beliefs, and hearing about the need to transition away from fossil fuels, and feeling unsure of the future, it is likely that talk of this transition will wake up many emotions.

This is where Philosophy comes in. It is about examining our emotions - why we feel the way we do, and our thoughts  - how we see the world - to help us as humans adapt and thrive. Circular economy is too important to be left to politicians, engineers or environmentalists alone, it needs to become part of our language, and shared world-view.

For peace with coming generations and the Earth: Pax cum terra, Pax cum posteris

We hope that the philosophical approach will show us the way forward from today’s material-hungry economy to a new culture of thriving with peace with each other, the Earth and future generations.

We have already changed the planet

Indeed, we hear that we humans are very little and powerless compared to the forces of nature, but we are waking up to the fact that we have already changed our world dramatically - not just the weather. Our man-made objects, like buildings and cars, now weigh more than all of the biomass on the earth by dry weight.

For scientists to experiment

We hope that from our ideas and discussions of the philosophy of the circular economy the sciences will find new approaches to explore. And we hope economists will find new approaches for the economy to “run clean”.

So, we need to reconsider our role in the big scheme of things. The philosophy of the circular economy will help us gather our thoughts about the kind of future we will offer to our children and grandchildren