From the History of Science to Geoanthropology
Jürgen Renn
Abstract
To understand the dynamics and trajectories of the Anthropocene, the single most crucial parameter of investigation is time—specifically, the interconnections and friction between multiple timescales and temporal processes. This essay outlines a possible role for the history of science in understanding the Anthropocene. The notion of the “Anthropocene” entails different historical horizons being banded together—in particular, longue durée transformations and the now-accelerating environmental and socio-epistemic changes. But the challenge of the Anthropocene for the history of science lies not only in new questions, topics, and methodological approaches: the history of science itself may gain new opportunities to use its insights and reflective potential to encourage innovative forms of scientific knowledge production. The essay argues that we need a new transdisciplinary, transformative science in order to understand the techno–Earth System from an integrative perspective. This new science of “geoanthropology” should study the technosphere as part of the techno–Earth System by integrating different disciplinary perspectives.