Naturbeherrschung 2.0.: Hegels Dialektik der Natur als Problem und Chance im Anthropozän

Abstract

This essay attempts to discuss the problem of Hegel’s concept of nature, the role it plays in his philosophy, and how this might be relevant to contemporary challenges in dealing with nature.

My starting point is Hegel's famous thought according to which the Idea freely releases itself from itself as Nature. Instead of interpreting this as an outgrowth of a supposed ontotheological idealism, one can also understand it "radically non-ontologically" (as, for example, Alfred Schmidt does), and even as an anticipation of Donna Haraway's conception of "nature" as a social construct or a metaphor. To support this position, I will claim that Hegel radically reframes the prevailing concepts of nature; both versus the ontological tradition from Aristotle to Spinoza, and also versus the transcendental-philosophical line from Kant, Fichte, Schelling et al. Hegel, in fact, develops a systemic-functional account of nature, thus avoiding the relapse into the aporias of monism and dualism – or apriorism and aposteriorism respectively.

Further, I will examine this position for its practical implications in dealing with nature, discussing in particular the relationship between "first" and "second" nature and also critically evaluating the anthropocentric-hierarchical concept of nature in Hegel’s Encyclopedia Philosophy of Nature, which is somewhat inconsistent and, in some parts, falls short of the dialectical conception of nature in Hegel’s main works.

Following this evaluation, I will outline the idea of a "Nature Mastery 2.0" based on Hegel's systemic-dialectical concept of nature: a mastery that is not primarily based on suppression and exploitation, but on the engagement of first and second nature with free will, much as for example a musician would be said to "master" her instrument.