05/15/2025

"On Abiding and Bearing"

A talk by Jason Throop (UCLA)

Thinking through a range of responses to the specter of climate catastrophe, this talk will examine two foundational forms of being-in-the-world that remain below the threshold of hope: abiding and bearing. As foundational attunements to the world, abiding and bearing are modes of being that disclose possibilities to keep going, even in the face of upheavals and crises that may tear our otherwise hoped for future projects and plans to the ground. Protentional, not yet fully expectational, these two modes of worldly attunement lie between the radical passivity of pathos and the effortful enactment of endurance. With etymological roots that link abiding to continuing, remaining, waiting, dwelling, and tolerating, and bearing to carrying on, bringing forth, birthing, producing, and sustaining, these two modes of attunement disclose an ongoing perpetuation of being, even in the context of situations where hope in its various, and varying, manifestations seems simply no longer possible.

Co-Presented by Leadership for the Ecozoic

Peterson Hall 108