Grand Narratives, Metamodernism, and Global Ethics

Abstract

Some philosophers contend that to effectively address problems such our global environmental crisis, humans must collectively embrace a polyphonic, environmentalist grand narrative, very different from the narratives accepted by modernists.  Cultural theorists who write about metamodernism likewise discuss the recent return to a belief in narratives, and contend that our society's current approach to narratives is very different from that of the modernists.  In this paper, I articulate these philosophers' and cultural theorists' positions, and I highlight and explore interconnections between them.  Additionally, I argue that if the authors I discuss are correct, then we morally ought to embrace a metamodernist, polyphonic, environmental grand narrative, in order to effectively address an array of global crises.  Such a grand narrative is a necessary ingredient of an adequate global ethics.