Kairos Club – Wittgenstein, Co-freedom & The Politics of Ecology

Thursday March 30th 2023
Kairos, 1 Essex Street, London WC2

In this talk, philosopher, Rupert Read, environmental movement strategist and author of ‘Wittgenstein’s Liberatory Philosophy’, argued that Wittgenstein is above all a philosopher of freedom – but that he sees freedom as utterly inextricable from our being together. Freedom is co-freedom, co-liberation.

And all of this depends entirely upon a functioning ecosystem. Which in turns depends upon dispensing with fantasies of endless material and technological ‘progress’. Which takes us back to Wittgenstein, who, at root, was a critic of ‘progress’ much more than he was a philosopher of language.

Rupert explained how Wittgenstein’s philosophy and an authentic politics/ethics of ecology and enlightenment are two sides of the same coin, providing valuable insights for activists, philosophers, devotees of Wittgenstein and those with only the vaguest idea of what he stood for.

To listen to the talk, please click here.