Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:From the EditorWilliam A. Johnsen, Professor & EditorI have just reread the proofs for Jean-Pierre Dupuy's How to Think about Catastrophe: Toward a Theory of Enlightened Doomsaying due out November 2022. I am grateful to Jean-Pierre, to his French publisher Seuil, to our talented and durable editorial staff at MSU Press.Prophecy is literally foretelling. Do you remember this passage from Girard's Battling to the End (2011), first published as Achever Clausewitz in 2007? I do.Terrorist wars and looming pandemics recall the plague in Thebes. The devastating nature of bird flu virus H5N1, which is a mutant that can kill hundreds of turkeys in a few hours, spreads through bird migrations, but especially thanks to air traffic. It is a pandemic that could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths in a few days, and it is a phenomenon typical of the undifferentiation now coursing across the planet. We can counter it with vaccines, so long as we share them, and do not limit them to rich nations, seeing how porous borders have become between countries, and between all differences in general. [End Page v]William A. Johnsen, Professor & EditorMichigan State UniversityCopyright © 2022 Michigan State University...