Multiversity Series (#1): The Conjuncture of the Present: Challenges for The Future of Humankind and Planetary Existence (Part 1)

The world today has entered a perilous time where the present conjuncture poses a fundamental threat to both our contemporary civilization and planetary existence. There are many factors that are constitutive of this conjuncture, some of which have been present singly at one time or another, but there has never been a time when all were present together. For instance, the gap between our technological knowledge and our capacity to think in moral and ethical terms has exponentially widened, global economic inequality has sharpened, and the rising threat of global warming looms large. In this first of two talks, Professor Vinay Lal will lay out eleven elements of the present conjuncture which present an extraordinary moral challenge to us; in the second talk, he will focus on the politics of knowledge systems and gesture at the new knowledge and ethical frameworks required for these perilous times.