Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?

This paper aims to show to what extent the normativity of organic life that emerged from the natural sciences of Hegel’s time influenced the structuring of his speculative approach. In the first part, the eighteenth-century paradigm shift in the natural sciences is investigated as marking the trans...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Achella Stefania
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Adam Mickiewicz University 2024-12-01
Series:Ethics in Progress
Subjects:
Online Access:https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/eip/article/view/42933
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846111261327097856
author Achella Stefania
author_facet Achella Stefania
author_sort Achella Stefania
collection DOAJ
description This paper aims to show to what extent the normativity of organic life that emerged from the natural sciences of Hegel’s time influenced the structuring of his speculative approach. In the first part, the eighteenth-century paradigm shift in the natural sciences is investigated as marking the transition from a physics-based worldview to a biology-based one. This shift argues strongly against the reduction of nature to mechanism and provides an adequate model for analysing the functioning of all other complex systems and, above all, the functioning of reason. In the second part, the consequences of such a shift are evaluated with respect to Hegel’s idealism, especially in relation to the categories of organism and purpose. They are the core elements for understanding not only the mode of living but also that of thinking. In the last part, we identify Hegel’s philosophy as a “living ontology,” an ontology that keeps pace with reality by modifying its categories accordingly. From this point of view, Hegel’s idealism can be compatible with a new idea of the relationship between human beings and the environment, in the direction of a relational ontology. The paper then focuses on the legacy of this re-reading of Hegel’s philosophy in the contemporary debate on ecological thinking that attempts to answer the question raised in the discussion on the environmental crisis and Anthropocene.
format Article
id doaj-art-74b7d967e39245c28f618b95cc451371
institution Kabale University
issn 2084-9257
language deu
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Adam Mickiewicz University
record_format Article
series Ethics in Progress
spelling doaj-art-74b7d967e39245c28f618b95cc4513712024-12-23T08:30:01ZdeuAdam Mickiewicz UniversityEthics in Progress2084-92572024-12-0115110.14746/eip.2024.2.4Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?Achella Stefania0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9806-5811University of Chieti-Pescara This paper aims to show to what extent the normativity of organic life that emerged from the natural sciences of Hegel’s time influenced the structuring of his speculative approach. In the first part, the eighteenth-century paradigm shift in the natural sciences is investigated as marking the transition from a physics-based worldview to a biology-based one. This shift argues strongly against the reduction of nature to mechanism and provides an adequate model for analysing the functioning of all other complex systems and, above all, the functioning of reason. In the second part, the consequences of such a shift are evaluated with respect to Hegel’s idealism, especially in relation to the categories of organism and purpose. They are the core elements for understanding not only the mode of living but also that of thinking. In the last part, we identify Hegel’s philosophy as a “living ontology,” an ontology that keeps pace with reality by modifying its categories accordingly. From this point of view, Hegel’s idealism can be compatible with a new idea of the relationship between human beings and the environment, in the direction of a relational ontology. The paper then focuses on the legacy of this re-reading of Hegel’s philosophy in the contemporary debate on ecological thinking that attempts to answer the question raised in the discussion on the environmental crisis and Anthropocene. https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/eip/article/view/42933Mechanismrelational ontology;living ontologyecological crisis
spellingShingle Achella Stefania
Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?
Ethics in Progress
Mechanism
relational ontology;
living ontology
ecological crisis
title Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?
title_full Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?
title_fullStr Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?
title_full_unstemmed Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?
title_short Life as Paradigm of Knowledge. What Use of Hegel in the Age of the Environmental Crisis?
title_sort life as paradigm of knowledge what use of hegel in the age of the environmental crisis
topic Mechanism
relational ontology;
living ontology
ecological crisis
url https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/eip/article/view/42933
work_keys_str_mv AT achellastefania lifeasparadigmofknowledgewhatuseofhegelintheageoftheenvironmentalcrisis