Ep 50 Wolff Peace - David Hume & Wangari Maathai: What's a Tree Worth to a Skeptic?

Can philosophy plant a forest? This episode pairs Scottish skeptic David Hume with Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai to explore reason, action, and environmental peace. Can we question the stories governments tell—and plant better ones ourselves? David Hume challenged the myth of the social contract and Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai’s reforestation movement helped grow peace from the ground up. Together, they invite us to rethink power, legitimacy, and how we tend the world we inherit. In this episode: Hume’s critique of inherited government and imagined consent Maathai’s Green Belt Movement and environmental peacebuilding Two reflection questions for political thought and daily practice   Visit aviskalfsbeek.com to learn more about the podcast, books, and upcoming episodes in the Wolff Peace series.  Music: Dalai Llama Rides a Bike by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez.  Bandcamp | Spotify  Robert Paul Wolff’s Political Man and Social Man on Amazon