Becoming Planetary

The annual Berggruen Prize Essay Competition was created to foster fresh intellectual inquiry, encourage innovative thinking, and bring diverse perspectives into critical global conversations. This volume contains the four winning essays on the theme of “the planetary” in English and Chinese.

Adam Frank writes about how astrobiology is rewiring our understanding of the intimate connection between life and planets; Pamela Swanigan argues that for humanity’s fight against climate change to gain real momentum, we need to find selfless courage; Yichao Lin writes a “conceptual history” of the concept of planetarity; and Yingjin Xu applies Confucianism on a digital, planetary scale.

Contributors

Adam Frank is an astrophysicist at the University of Rochester.
Pamela Swanigan is a Vancouver-based writer and editor.
Yichao Lin is a PhD candidate at Sun Yat-sen University.
Yingjin Xu is a professor of philosophy from Fudan University.