Introduction: Why Extinction Matters
Introduction: Why Extinction Matters
This introduction presents the main argument for the book: that cultural values and scientific theories about extinction have been intertwined over the past 200 years, and have influenced the way Western societies have constructed values around diversity and have shaped how they have imagined human futures. This collective scientific and cultural understanding of extinction can be considered an "imaginary": a web of values and beliefs that conditions the way we experience the social, political, and natural worlds. Extinction imaginaries, this introduction argues, have shifted over time, responding to and influencing both scientific and cultural appreciations of diversity, risk, and crisis in a variety of contexts.
Keywords: extinction, catastrophe, diversity, cultural imagination
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