Eco-Transcendence: Reconfiguring MetaReality to Rethink the Climate Crisis

Abstract

Background: This article proposes a conceptual reconfiguration of metareality within the framework of critical realism to revisit the ontological dimension of the climate crisis, as well as a reconfiguration of the causal ontology of metareality as a basis for a more adequate ecological ontology. Based on Roy Bhaskar's late phase thinking, this paper asserts that the mainstream interpretation of the climate crisis is still limited by the residue of anthropocentrism and has not adequately elaborated on the ecological relationality that constitutes oikos as the home of human and more-than-human life. The dominant configuration of environmental science, policy, and ethics tends to reduce the climate crisis to technical-empirical and governance problems, so that the causal-transcendental structures that allow the emergence and reproduction of crises remain hidden. Objective: ... Methods: This research is a qualitative study with a philosophical approach to science and critical realism, based on library research on Bhaskar's works in the metaReality phase, the latest literature on the climate crisis, as well as the study of ecological philosophy and criticism of anthropocentrism. The data analysis uses philosophical hermeneutics and critical retroduction to expose the causal-transcendental structure of the climate crisis while simultaneously identifying ontological gaps in the configuration of climate science, environmental policy, and ethics that reduce the crisis to technocracy. Results: The findings show that through the framework of eco-transcendence as a theoretical innovation, the climate crisis can be understood not only as an emission or policy issue, but as an ontological disjuncture between stratified reality and the ground metaReal of unity marked by disconnection of relations and ecological alienation. In this perspective, the climate crisis appears to be a crisis of relational reality that is layered and wicked, namely a crisis of deep dependence between humans, nature, and social structures. The novelty of the research lies in the development of eco-transcendence as a reconfiguration of the causal ontology of metareality that integrates causality, ecological existence, and ethical responsibility within a single ontological horizon, while offering a basis for transformational praxisis that goes beyond technocraticism and abstract morality. Conclusion: Thus, a metarealistic ecological ontology is not only desirable, but is a transcendental prerequisite for an adequate philosophical and pragmatic response to the contemporary climate crisis.