Endnotes to Plato: An Essay on Eco-Monism

For a long time, philosophy has been characterized as a series of footnotes to Plato. Endnotes to Plato reimagines this legacy, offering a bold and timely exploration of eco-monism — an emerging paradigm in environmental humanities that unifies nature and culture into one ontological whole.

Through eight polyphonic “endnotes,” the book weaves together analytic philosophy, science studies, critical theory, and literary criticism to challenge the binarist divide between nature and culture, a legacy traceable to Plato and his disciples. It argues that this divide has shaped environmental discourse in limiting, even anti-ecological ways. In its place, Endnotes to Plato defends a version of neutral eco-monism inspired by Bruno Latour’s theory of modernity, while addressing ethical concerns about incommensurability by articulating it in the vocabulary of relations.

Provocative and deeply interdisciplinary, Endnotes to Plato contends that delineating the foundations of eco-monism is imperative for envisioning environmental justice, and recognizing Plato’s ecological legacy is indispensable to this delineation. Above all, it invites us to rethink the philosophical frameworks that have shaped our world — and to envisage new ones for the warming globe ahead.

“If research and writing in the humanities is, as I believe, ultimately about making meaning — and opening the possibility of meaningful change — within a messy and uncertain world, then I count myself lucky to have seen such a thing come to fruition over the course of our research collaboration [on Endnotes to Plato].” — R Baker, PhD Student in English, UCSB

“Kevin’s work is remarkable. I haven’t taught graduate students, but I expect his work is the sort for which one would hope for one’s graduate students. … His is among the most impressive work I’ve had from a student in my over-twenty years as a professor. Kevin is a special student and his research was nothing short of superb.” — David Dudrick, George Carleton Jr. Professor of Philosophy, Colgate University

Contents
Introduction: An Eco-Monist Manifesto
Endnote 0: Endnote as Methodology
Endnote 1: Plato der Scheinende
Endnote 2: From Eco-Logy to Eco-Ontology
Endnote 3: Geolocating Eco-Monism
Endnote 2^2: Toward Metaethical Relationalism
Endnote 5: Sci-Fi and Deflationism
Endnote ∞: Methodology as Endnote

Kevin K. Zhang is a junior at BASIS International School PLH. He is the 2024 Grand Prize and Philosophy 1st Prize winner of the John Locke Global Essay Competition. Kevin is the author of another philosophy book, The Dialectics of Equality: A Critical History, and a chapbook, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie. His work has been featured in international literary magazines.

Click here to get

Endnotes to Plato: An Essay on Eco-Monism

on Amazon