On Models and Examples

Abstract

This paper advances a heuristic distinction between “model” (in the Geertzian sense of “model-for”) and “example” as contrasting modes of articulating thought and action in the Anthropocene. I argue that the distinction is helpful in understanding the ontological presuppositions of geo-engineering as a technopolitical fix. Finally, I draw the outlines of a notion of “ontological anarchism” as the proper meta-mode of existence of the Anthropocene.