The Climate of History: Four Theses by Dipesh Chakrabarty
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Questions and Answers

What is the main focus of the text?

  • The history of global warming
  • The impact of climate change on individuals, groups, and governments
  • The responses to climate change (correct)
  • The role of JSTOR in preserving climate change data

    • Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a response to climate change in the text?

  • Denial
  • Engagement and activism
  • Acceptance and adaptation (correct)
  • Disconnect

    • What kind of crisis is the text referring to?

  • Political crisis
  • Social crisis
  • Planetary crisis of climate change or global warming (correct)
  • Economic crisis

    • According to the text, what does climate change elicit from individuals, groups, and governments?

    <p>A variety of responses ranging from denial to engagement and activism</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What constitutes our sense of the now, according to the text?

    <p>Responses to climate change</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is JSTOR's role as mentioned in the text?

    <p>Digitizing and preserving access to climate change information</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does Alan Weisman's thought experiment in 'The World without Us' aim to demonstrate?

    <p>The disconnect between the future and the past in the face of the current crisis</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to the text, how does Weisman's thought experiment affect our usual historical practices?

    <p>It throws them into a deep contradiction and confusion</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the text suggest about Weisman's thought experiment in relation to our historical sense of the present?

    <p>It has become deeply destructive of our general sense of history</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In 'The World without Us', what is the primary purpose of inserting ourselves into envisioning the future?

    <p>To be able to visualize a future 'without us'</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does the text describe Weisman's thought experiment in relation to contemporary moods of anxiety and concern?

    <p>As illustrating the historicist paradox that inhabits contemporary moods of anxiety and concern</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What impact does the text suggest Weisman's thought experiment has on our general sense of history?

    <p>It becomes deeply destructive</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to the text, what is the purpose of Alan Weisman's thought experiment in 'The World without Us'?

    <p>To illuminate the disconnect between the future and the past in the face of the current crisis</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does Weisman's thought experiment affect our ability to picture the past and future?

    <p>It creates a deep contradiction and confusion in our historical practices</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is suggested about Weisman's thought experiment in relation to our contemporary sense of the present?

    <p>It has become deeply destructive of our general sense of history</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The current planetary crisis discussed in the text is climate change or global warming.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to the text, individuals, groups, and governments only respond to climate change with a spirit of engagement and activism.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    JSTOR is a for-profit service.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The text suggests that Weisman's thought experiment in 'The World without Us' has no impact on our usual historical practices.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The main focus of the text is on the responses of individuals, groups, and governments to climate change.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to the text, the purpose of Alan Weisman's thought experiment in 'The World without Us' is to demonstrate the impact of human absence on the world.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Alan Weisman's book 'The World without Us' proposes a thought experiment to imagine a world after human extinction.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The discipline of history assumes a continuity of human experience connecting the past, present, and future.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Weisman's thought experiment in 'The World without Us' illustrates the historicist paradox that pervades contemporary anxieties about the finitude of humanity.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to the text, our usual historical practices for visualizing past and future times are not affected by Weisman's thought experiment.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The text suggests that Weisman's thought experiment has a constructive impact on our general sense of history.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Weisman's experiment indicates how confusion arises from our contemporary sense of the present, leading to concerns about our future.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Alan Weisman wrote the first version of this essay in Bengali for a journal in Calcutta.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The text implies that the exercise of historical understanding is not thrown into contradiction and confusion by Weisman's thought experiment.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    According to the text, human extinction is depicted as a fait accompli in Alan Weisman's thought experiment.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Alan Weisman’s thought experiment aims to demonstrate the disconnect between our historical sense of the present and concerns about the future.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    • Dipesh Chakrabarty's essay "The Climate of History: Four Theses" is published in Critical Inquiry, Winter 2009.
    • The author is drawn to Alan Weisman's thought experiment in his book "The World without Us," which invites readers to imagine a world without humans.
    • Weisman's experiment illustrates the historicist paradox that arises when people become anxious about the future and disconnected from the past.
    • The discipline of history relies on the assumption of a continuity of human experience connecting the past, present, and future.
    • Weisman's thought experiment requires imagining a future "without us," contradicting our usual historical practices and confusing the exercise of historical understanding.
    • The essay is dedicated to the memory of Greg Dening and acknowledges the contributions of various scholars to the development of the essay.
    • The author wrote the first version of the essay in Bengali for a Calcutta journal and thanks its editor, Asok Sen, for his encouragement.
    • The essay explores the implications of the climate crisis on our sense of history and how our responses to the crisis can disconnect us from the past.

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