Abstract This paper argues that the conditions of the Anthropocene render the four ontologies described by Philippe Descola obsolete, and begins the search for a fifth ontology that speaks to the meaning of the arrival of the new epoch. The radically new dispensation destabilises all prior understandings of the human, of nature and of the relationship between the two. Before progress is possible, the Anthropocene must be correctly understood. The concept emerged in the year 2000 not as another term to describe the extent of human impact across the landscape, the environment or ecosystems, but as a new idea to capture a very recent change in the nature of human impact on the Earth as a total entity, activity of a kind and on a scale sufficient to shift the geological evolution of the planet itself. The emergence of humans as a force of nature represents a rupture in human history and in Earth history, and a shift in the ontological status of both humankind and the Earth. All previous ontological systems are Holocene ones. The Earth can no longer be characterised, as it has been in environmental philosophy and post-humanism, as passive and fragile, as our victim; it is increasingly marked by angry, violent and uncontrollable behaviour, all of which destroys the conceit of human mastery. However, this emphatically does not mean that humans are powerless and that our agency can be reduced to the “agencies” of other creatures. A new ontology must grasp the primal Anthropocene fact that humankind is so powerful and so exceptional that it can knowingly change the geological trajectory of the Earth. The essence of the Anthropocene is not technological but lies in the fact that technological humans have shifted the Earth into a “no analogue state.” A fifth ontology might begin from the reconfiguration of time implied when humans became a geological force, and as a result the novel way we must look into the future and reconsider the nature of the being of humans. If an ontology is the expression of the emotional orientation of the times, then the grounds of a fifth ontology can be found in the “attunement” of the millions of striking school students. The essential disposition appears to be that of dread.

中文翻译：

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迈向人类世的第五个本体

摘要 本文认为人类世的条件使菲利普·德斯科拉所描述的四种本体论过时了，并开始寻找第五种本体论来说明新时代到来的意义。全新的体制破坏了先前对人类、自然和两者之间关系的所有理解。在取得进展之前，必须正确理解人类世。这个概念出现于 2000 年，并不是描述人类对景观、环境或生态系统的影响程度的另一个术语，而是一个新的想法，用于捕捉人类对地球的总体影响的性质最近发生的变化。实体，一种活动，其规模足以改变地球本身的地质演化。人类作为一种自然力量的出现，代表了人类历史和地球历史的断裂，以及人类和地球本体论地位的转变。所有以前的本体系统都是全新世的。地球不再像在环境哲学和后人文主义中那样被描述为被动和脆弱，是我们的受害者；它越来越以愤怒、暴力和无法控制的行为为特征，所有这些都摧毁了人类统治的自负。然而，这强调并不意味着人类无能为力，我们的代理可以减少到其他生物的“代理”。一个新的本体必须掌握原始人类世的事实，即人类是如此强大和非凡，以至于它可以有意识地改变地球的地质轨迹。人类世的本质不是技术，而是在于技术人类已经将地球转变为“非模拟状态”的事实。第五种本体论可能始于人类成为地质力量时所暗示的时间重构，因此我们必须以新颖的方式展望未来并重新考虑人类的存在本质。如果说一个本体是时代情感取向的表达，那么第五个本体的根据就在于数百万罢工学生的“调和”。基本的性格似乎是恐惧的。因此，我们必须以新颖的方式展望未来并重新考虑人类存在的本质。如果说一个本体是时代情感取向的表达，那么第五个本体的根据就在于数百万罢工学生的“调和”。基本的性格似乎是恐惧的。因此，我们必须以新颖的方式展望未来并重新考虑人类存在的本质。如果说一个本体是时代情感取向的表达，那么第五个本体的根据就在于数百万罢工学生的“调和”。基本的性格似乎是恐惧的。