Abyssal Thinking: On Nothingness, Extinction, and Flourishing

Abstract

This article presents a series of non-dualist theoretical approaches to the concept of nothingness and explores their implications for understanding the dynamics of extinction. The author reflects on questions such as: What is the event of extinction? Or what do extinction and planetary devastation tell us about contemporary culture? In approaching an answer, current environmentalist imaginaries assume, from a speculative perspective, an oppositional conception of nothingness; life and death -being and nothingness- are considered diametrically opposed dimensions. The author concludes that discontinuity is an inherent part of our ecologies of living and dying.