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2025 - Volume 9 - Number 1

Is There Hope? Emancipation Philosophy through Plurality and Cosmology

Tory Schendel-Vyvoda * ORCID: 0000-0001-8670-7450
Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, UNITED STATES

Open Journal for Studies in Philosophy, 2025, 9(1), 45-50 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsp.0901.04045s
Received: 23 February 2025 ▪ Revised: 7 July 2025 ▪ Accepted: 20 July 2025

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
In Inhuman by Jean-François Lyotard, it is stated that after the Sun’s death, there will be no one left to acknowledge it. While this scientific reality may seem nihilistic, there is room for hope. In this article, I argue that plurality and cosmological thinking enable emancipatory philosophy. I reference philosophers Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, and Gianni Vattimo to illustrate the diversity of human experience, challenging the notion of universal human history. Furthermore, I examine how the Earth and the cosmos reflect each other through Foucault’s The Order of Things and analyze the Norse concept of Ragnarök in relation to the demise of the Milky Way. By recognizing interconnectedness amid the impending solar catastrophe, a gentler human consciousness could emerge, as the material from the solar explosion could spark the formation of a new galaxy, potentially fostering life once more. The blast may signal a new beginning rather than an end.

KEY WORDS: plurality, cosmology, emancipation, Norse, Foucault.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Tory Schendel-Vyvoda, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, UNITED STATES.

REFERENCES:

Foucault, M. (2005). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences. Routledge.

D'Aulaire, I., & D’Aulaire, E. P. (1967). Norse gods and giants. Doubleday Books for Young Readers.

Gianni Vattimo. (2007). The transparent society. Cambridge; Malden: Polity Press.

Lyotard, J.-F. (1991). The inhuman: Reflections on time. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

Sturluson, S. (2014). The poetic Edda (C. Larrington, Trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Who Were the Vikings and What Were They Called? (2024, November 25). Vikings, 6.

Image source
Urnes, Norway | Portal, Set into Wall of Later Stave Church (11th century) | Artsy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.artsy.net/artwork/urnes-norway-portal-set-into-wall-of-later-stave-church