A Truth That Can Save Us? On Critical Theory, Revelation, and Climate Change

In this article, I perform an experimental discussion of questions concerning revelation and truth in relation to the climate crisis. The concern is not revelation in any determinate theological sense but rather an attempt to reach for a perspective on truth that understands it as something that ruptures and disturbs the way we tend to think. I take my point of departure in a series of thinkers such as Horkheimer, Adorno, and Foucault. The key turn of the argument, however, is to confront the critical theoretical discourse of these thinkers with Schelling's notion of positive philosophy, which offers an interesting alternative perspective on the question of existence and truth compared with standard forms of critical theory. In view of Schelling's positive philosophy, I argue that his reflection on revelation is meaningful to revisit in relation to the climate threat, and I make some experimental connections between this idea of positive philosophy and recent discussions about the Anthropocene, asking for a more profoundly self-critical approach to question how we can approach the dire problems that we face as humanity. I end with an example of such reflection in the writings of the feminist materialist Nancy Tuana.