Against the idea of social contract theories that suggest humans invented the political, Gerard Kuperus argues that we have always been political and that our species came into existence in a world that was already political. By studying the rich social and political lives of other animals, Ecopolitics provides suggestions for how to think and feel differently about ourselves, our relationship to other people, and to the places and beings around us. Kuperus suggests we understand ourselves as part of an eco-political community consisting of humans and other living beings as well as inanimate objects. By recognizing nature itself as utterly political and seeing ourselves as a part of this larger political unity, we can come to face the real challenges of our times. This means that we are not simply putting ourselves in nature as we are. We are also changing who we are.

Gerard Kuperus is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Ecopolitical Homelessness: Defining Place in an Unsettled World.