Abstract

According to the authors, the historical cycle of thought and practice of modernity characterized by the certainty of progressing toward a better or perfect society on this Earth is coming to a close. Its landing place, however, is not the end of history, with the convergence of humanity toward a single model of social and political organization, but a polycrisis scenario in which uncertainties increase, planetary limits to development are imposed, and mortal dangers for humanity are looming, from the nuclear weapon, to threats on the biosphere, to climate and migration catastrophes. Within this framework, apocalyptic-catastrophic visions emerge, and new forms of anxiety, anguish, mourning and civilizational malaise. For the authors, the way out of both catastrophism and the sense of transience and the bubble of naïve optimism leads to mourning the world that is ending, with its promises and certainties, and preparing to inhabit the complexity of the new world, to reopen the horizon of possibilities and the future, without abandoning but re-signifying and complexifying the founding ideas of modernity: progress, science, humanism, universalism.