#53,5

Today I have had half a book writing day devoted to my scientific monograph Carbon Capture and the Future of Environmentalism, which is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic. In the process I added some 400 words to the manuscript. This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 53,5 including 24 book writing days.

#39,5

Today I have had a book writing day, with some 450 words added to my scientific monograph Carbon Capture and the Future of Environmentalism, which is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic. This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 39,5, including 15 book writing days.

#5,5

Today I have had a book writing day, with some 100 words written on my scientific monograph in spe Being and Sign, and - more importantly - some readings done. This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 5,5, including 2 book writing days.

ReFill-podcast interview on prison experience, environmental philosophy, activism released

A few days ago, a podcast episode of ReFill, released by University of Stavanger, which features an interview with me by podcast host Alessandro Falcetta, was published online. The episode (ReFill no. 12) is titled "Hvordan kan filosofi hjelpe oss å forstå miljøkrisen?" (How can philosophy help us understand the environmental crisis?). An automatically transcribed version of the interview in PDF format is also available.

Næss and economics paper scheduled for presentation July 25th at ISQOLS 2025 (Luxembourg)

The paper "What deep ecologist Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics", submitted on behalf of Jan Karlstrøm, Thomas Hylland Eriksen and myself, has been scheduled for presentation (by me) at the 2025 conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies  (ISQOLS 2025), which is held in Luxembourg July 22-25th. The paper will be presented on Friday July 25th at 14.14-14.36 as part of the session 21A, "Special Session on Legitimate Public Policies: Promoting Well-being and Ecological Sustainability".

#22

Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 1.200 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 22 writing days, including 18,5 book writing days.  

Today was the most productive writing day so far this year in terms of number of words written. 

Economics needs philosophy - article recommendation on UIS webpage Refill

A brief article titled "Økonomi trenger filosofi" (Economics needs philosophy) by Alessandro Falcetta on Refill, a new University of Stavanger webpage focused on religion, philosophy and outlook on life, features the article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet" (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics) which I co-wrote with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen and which was published last year.

Excerpt:

Abstract for ISQOLS 2025: "What deep ecologist Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics"

I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to the organizers of The 23rd Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS 2025), which is to be held 22-25 July, 2025, in Luxembourg.

***

What deep ecologist Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics

By Morten Tønnessen (presenter), Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen (deceased 2024)

The Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss (1912-2009) criticized modern economics for its lack of philosophical awareness and interdisciplinarity, suggesting that economists should draw inspiration from the field’s origins in philosophy. Næss’ views on how the economy should be organized and studied are significant for a proper understanding of his overall philosophy, particularly in light of his differentiation between a deep and shallow understanding of environmental issues. In this paper we review Næss’ critique of economics as an academic discipline and discuss his proposals for transforming our approach to economics, considering both its historical development and the ongoing environmental crisis. Specifically, we emphasize the importance of philosophy, ecology, and social anthropology as foundational elements for economics. Our primary reference is the Norwegian-language chapter “New tasks for political economy” from Næss’ major work in environmental philosophy, "Ecology, Community and Lifestyle". We deal with Næss’ view on the use of models and the relationship between theory and reality, the fundamental connection between ecology and the economy, what role normative systems thinking can play for economics, and how economics can be informed by economic anthropology. Our treatment of Næss´ philosophy of economics includes an investigation of his views on relations between people´s quality of life and GDP growth, and his conception of progress and welfare. In conclusion we reflect on the implications of our analysis of Arne Næss’ economic viewpoints for the future of economics. We see a need for a reorientation within economics with an increased focus on environmental issues as understood by ecologists, a reframed focus on values and goods as understood by philosophers, and a renewed emphasis on promotion of welfare as the primary goal of economics. In practice, the latter reorientation will imply adopting John Stuart Mill's categorization of economics as a branch of social philosophy.

Topic: Disciplinary Approaches to Well-Being, Happiness and Quality-of-life

Keywords: Arne Næss, Deep ecology, Ecological economics, Environmental philosophy, GDP growth, Interdisciplinarity, John Stuart Mill, Normative systems thinking, Philosophy of economics, Political economy, Quality of life, Social anthropology, Welfare

To take part in panel on economics during Kåkånomics 2024

I have been scheduled to take part in a panel discussion on the topic "Har økonomer for stor makt over økonomifeltet?" (Do economists have too much power in the area of economics?) during the festival Kåkånomics 2024, which is held October 23-26th 2024 in Stavanger, Norway. The panel is scheduled for Wednesday October 23rd at 9.30-10.30 p.m., and also involves Karl-Fredrik Tangen, social geographer at Høyskolen i Kristiania.

#41

Today I have had an article writing day, with work done on three writing projects, namely a journal article on democracy issues I will co-write with Svein Tuastad, my contributions to the forthcoming book Mars and the Earthlings, and the forthcoming journal article «Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet» (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics), which I proof-read. The article is co-written with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen and will soon appear in Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift.

Næss article proof-read

Today I have responded to language washing / proofs of the article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet" (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics), which I have co-written with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen and which will appear in issue 1/2, 2024, of Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift.

Article on Arne Næss´ philosophy of economics accepted for publication in Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift

We have just been notified that our article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet" (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics) has been accepted for publication in Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift. I have co-written the article along with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen.

"What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics" resubmitted

Yesterday I submitted a revised version of the article on Arne Næss´ views on the philosophy of economics which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet" (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics), to Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift. 

#30,5

Today I have had what ended up as half an article writing day, #30,5 so far this Spring. I have made some minor edits in the article on Arne Næss´ views on the philosophy of economics, which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, and obtained a figure permission for and done a little writing on the chapter "Ecological Semiotics" which is to be published as part of Elsevier´s Encyclopedia of Ecology (third edition).

#30

Today I have finished the revised version of our article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet", which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen and which will be resubmitted to Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift soon. In the process I added some 400 words net to the article concerning my text contributions, and also made substantial deletions. So far this Spring I have had 30 writing days.

#29

Today I have had a writing day devoted to revision of our article on Arne Næss´ view on the philosophy of economics, with some 250 words written net in the process, and portions of text deleted. So far I have had 29 writing days this Spring.

#28

Today I have had what ended up as (only) half a writing day, with some 150 words added to, and bits deleted from, the article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet" ("What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics"), which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen. So far this Spring I have had 28 writing days.

#27,5

Today I have had half a writing day with work done on the revision of the article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet", which I am co-writing with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen. So far this Autumn I have had 27,5 writing days.

#27

Today I have had an article writing day, writing day #27 this Spring, with work done on various writing projects, including:

Doing some searching and thinking about possible journal for the GDP review article I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm

Confirming that I will write a second chapter on the work of Henrik Steffens, and coming up with the work-title "Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered: Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene", and composing/extracting some 200 words in the process

Looking through some suggestions concerning the article on Arne Næss and economics which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Proof-reading my chapter "A Biosemiotic Perspective on the Human Condition and the Environmental Crisis" for the book Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era.

Choosing a work-title for the first follow-up to my article "Wasted GDP in the USA", namely "Wasted GDP in major economies: With time series data", and starting on a manuscript file

 See also:

Second Steffens chapter invited and planned for

#21,5

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 100 words written. I mainly did some editing and literature search for the second article I co-write with Joakim Jiri Haaland, whom I supervise for his ph.d. I also got some editorial information and feedback and made some plans with regard to my chapter "Ecological semiotics", which will be part of the 3rd edition of Encyclopedia of Ecology, and the article on Arne Næss´ views on economics which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, which we got back from Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift for revision. So far this Spring I have had 21,5 writing days.