T. Morton’s “Dark Ecology” in the Context of Ecophilosophical Concepts and Global Environmental Challenges of the 21st Century

Yerlan AUBAKIROV, Sergei Dmitrievich Mezentsev

2026

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DOI 10.21146/0042-8744-2026-4-45-55
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

The article examines Timothy Morton’s concept of “dark ecology” in the context of contemporary ecophilosophical approaches and the global environmental challenges of the 21st century. The aim of the study is to demonstrate how “dark ecology” rethinks the human situation in the world and compares it with posthumanism, antinatalism, accelerationism, deep ecology, and ecofeminism. The me­thodological basis of the work is a systemic, comparative, and critical analysis, involving the reconstruction of Morton’s key ideas (hyperobjects, ecological mourning, “dark activism”) and their correlation with the tenets of continental philosophy (Martin Heidegger, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Jacques Derrida). The authors show that “dark ecology” radicalizes the critique of anthropocentrism and technocentrism, rejecting the notion of a harmonious “nature” as a single whole external to humans and emphasizing the fundamental integration of human existence into networks of material, biological, and technogenic interconnections. They identify points of convergence and differences between “dark ecology” and related approaches: it shares with posthumanism a decentering of the human subject and an attention to non-human agents, with antinatalism an emphasis on suffering and ethical responsibility, and with accelerationism a recognition of the scale of the contemporary crisis with an opposing the role of technology. The article concludes that “dark ecology” fosters a distinct type of environmental ethics and activism, oriented toward accepting the inherent conflicts of ecological existence and developing an ethic of coexistence. This opens up opportunities for harnessing its potential in rethinking sustainable development strategies and environmental policy in the context of the Anthropocene and the climate crisis.