Michel Serres
Interventions for Our Time of Crisis
“In my reading, this is the best introduction to Serres’ complex, imaginative, and profound thinking that has not lost any of its relevance for the times we are living through.”
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Professor at the University of Chicago and author of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (2021).
“Peter Johnson’s monograph offers a particularly timely reflection on the current planetary predicament through a thorough, compelling and very lucid exploration of Michel Serres’ ideas, providing the reader with profound intellectual clarity to understand such predicament and, ultimately, address it.”
Alessandro Pelizzon, author of Ecological Jurisprudence: The Law of Nature and the Nature of Law (2025).
___________________________________________________
The aim of my website is to inspire you to read, think about and discuss Michel Serres’ far-reaching proposals concerning the planetary crisis. The site complements and offers ongoing discussion of my published work, particularly Michel Serres- a Global Response to a Multiple Crisis, published in 2026 in paperback and as an Ebook.
Michel Serres urges us to recognise our common identity in the telling of a universal story that reaches the deep origins of our time of crisis and offers a foundation for a new politics of hope.
“Faced with the real dangers we are running, what decision to make, what conduct to adopt, what organisations to build, what to rely on to respond to these demands? I try to provide a simple, local and global answer to questions that often distress our contemporaries. Philosophy is not worth an hour of trouble if it does not anticipate a future for which we are responsible”.
Michel Serres (1930-2019) wrote over 70 books, many of which reflected on the history of the planetary crisis and how to respond to it in a way that would make a real difference. Brought up in a humble rural background, he disliked the insular academic world. He drew inspiration from a remarkable range of sources, including mathematics, science, literature, communication theory, ancient myths and religion. He is impossible to pigeonhole. Serres believed that philosophy should invent new ways of thinking and living. It should learn from the past, but above all invent the future.
Decades ago, he became aware of the unprecedented danger the world faced. There were no easy answers. The responses suggested when he was a live and that remain today were totally inadequate (sustainable growth, carbon reduction, technical fixes, adaptation, local initiatives):
“In previous ages, no knowledge had ever had to conceive or lead projects that were as vital: reinventing the universality of the individual, reconfiguring his habitat, weaving new relations. From having to rethink everything, philosophy changes span and sees its responsibility to grow. Either a new human, a citizen of the world, will appear, or humanity will totter. We have to bring about peace between ourselves to safeguard the world and peace with the world in order to save ourselves” (Michel Serres, Branches).
“Dans les âges précédents, nul savoir n’eut à concevoir ni conduire de projets aussi vitaux : réinventer l’universalité individu, reconfigurer son habitat, tisser de nouvelles relations. D’avoir tout repenser, la philosophie change d’empan et voit croître sa responsabilité. Ou apparaitra un nouvel homme, citoyen du monde, ou l’humanité chancellera. Nous devons décider la paix entre nous pour sauvegarder le monde et la paix avec le monde afin de nous sauver” (Michel Serres, Rameaux).
The site introduces four Foundations of Serres’ response to the planetary emergency.
Over 30 years ago, Serres insisted we need to seek a global pact that includes all nature, including ourselves. He wrote about this in The Natural Contract, first published in 1990, and he frequently returned to the theme in later books.
Serres thought that our new understanding of the evolution of our planet and all living things could transform our relation to each other and the earth. The ‘Common Story’ reveals what all living beings share, the fundamental bonds of nature that underpin the formation of a natural contract.
Serres considered that new forms of information and communication technologies, such as the internet and artificial intelligence, possessed dangers. But he also thought the opportunities of ICTs could help form a global community that brought us closer to the rest of nature. The Web mirrored the entangled bonds of nature. The internet matched his relational way of thinking.
Serres considered that the abuse of the planet could not be separated from the abuse of each other. In his later work, Serres reflected on the need for a new global politics. The Natural Contract, a shared Common Story and world-wide access to each other and information about the world would provide key springboards for a new way of conducting politics.
The Branching Out blog supports, challenges and extends Serres’ ideas. Your comments and contributions are essential here in exploring pathways of hope that match the depth and extent of the planetary emergency.
For a more detailed introduction, you can download a copy of my Essay‘ ‘Who is Michel Serres and Why Should I Read Him’ (2026) or a French version: Qui est Michel Serres? (2026).
Peter Johnson copyright 2026.