Abstract
“Folding Nature Back Upon Itself: Aristotle and the Rebirth of Physis,” confronts us with nature’s receding presence and proposes to think through a rebirth of physis. Following Aristotle’s concept of physis, this paper locates two axes along which such a rethinking of physis can take place. The first axis is vertical, and turns around the fundamental tension that each natural being faces in seeking to overcome its own matter in order to reach transcendence. The second axis is horizontal, and follows Aristotle’s ideas that physis cannot unfold unless aided, stimulated, nurtured and enforced by external factors such as one’s environment, food, art, technology, and politics. This paper argues that vertical transcendence needs to be rethought to accommodate earthy, individual natural flourishing. Horizontal transcendence (e.g. rethinking the collaboration between different species and the collaboration between art and nature) may allow physis the kind of vertical transcendence that leads to its rebirth. This has important implications for both restoration projects and de-extinction projects: we need to acknowledge the role of human design for restoration and conservation projects, and envision humans no longer as external and superior to eco-systems, but as part of them. Only within newly conceptualized social-ecological systems can such a new vision of physis take flight.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Hadot addresses the initial meaning of physis as process of growth and how this later transformed (Hadot 2006, 17).
- 2.
One such critic is Jacques Derrida. In his book, Gadamer and the Question of Understanding: Between Heidegger and Derrida, Costache argues that for Derrida “philosophical hermeneutics [is] incapable to account for the alterity of the other” (2016, 107), since, at least according to Derrida, it is based on the assumption of perfect agreement.
- 3.
In his description of the awe-inspiring yet (potentially) destructive force of nature in the form of the sublime, Kant explicitly draws parallels between respect for nature and respect for the divine.
- 4.
While especially the notion of art and politics seem mostly applicable to human nature, I extend Aristotle’s model to include all of nature.
- 5.
This is Sachs’ translation and emphasis. For the translation of Aristotle’s Physics, I mostly rely on Joe Sachs’ translation (1998), with some slight modifications if necessary.
- 6.
According to Wolfgang Wieland, while it is clear that such a knowledge based on principles is necessary, it is never explicitly clear how such an inquiry into principles is attained. In Wieland’s view, such an inquiry into principles is practiced more than theorized about (Wieland 1970, 53). Provocatively, Heidegger, in his analysis of Aristotelian physis, argues that since the word “nature” always entails an interpretation of beings as a whole, and since metaphysics articulates the truth about beings as a whole, meta-physics is “physics” (Heidegger 1998 [1939], 185. Nonetheless, Aristotle in various locations makes a distinction between first philosophy or theology and physics, thereby lending proof to the idea that the boundary between physics and metaphysics, while perhaps admitting of transgressions, needs to be carefully kept in view (e.g. Metaphysics VI.1, 1025b19-1026a32). Interestingly, in Nicomachean Ethics VI.8, 1142a16-18 Aristotle argues that discovering the principles of both metaphysics and physics requires experience, which is why young people can become mathematicians but not metaphysicians or physicists.
- 7.
Aristotle writes about this process: “enduring not as itself but as one like itself, that is one with it not in number but in kind (eidos)” (De Anima II.4, 415b7-8). My translation here is based partly on Hett (1995) and partly on Sachs (1999).
- 8.
Curator description, Hess Collection, Napa Valley. Andy Goldsworthy. Snowball Drawings, Earth and Snow, 1993, 9 individual drawings.
- 9.
Cf. Xenophon, Oeconomicus XVI.13 for such proven techniques of having land lying fallow and how this procedure may compensate for the lack of manure.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
Jane Goodall, in Harvest for Hope, discusses the introduction of monocultures after WWII with the same crop being planted on the same field year after year. The focus to keep this one crop alive is taxing, and provides additional incentive to add chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides. What results is high stress and elevated risk of suicide among farmers (Goodall et al. 2005, 39).
- 13.
“The corn crop is highly productive, but the corn system is aligned to feed cars and animals instead of feeding people.” And when corn feeds people, it mostly “feeds” them in terms of high fructose corn syrup. See Jonathan Foley, “It’s Time to Rethink America’s Corn System. Only a tiny fraction of corn grown in the U.S. directly feeds the nation’s people, and much of that is from high-fructose corn syrup.”
- 14.
William Cronon traces the idea of opposing nature as pristine, untainted wilderness vs. humanity back to the end of the nineteenth century. Before that time, wilderness was associated with what is barren and desolate, a “waste.” Only with Thoreau, and other such as Muir does wilderness reach the status of being God’s own temple (Cronon 1996, 70, 72).
- 15.
- 16.
In Homo Sacer, Agamben defines bare life as “that whose exclusion forms the city of men” (Agamben 1998, 7).
- 17.
It obfuscates this as disinterested worldly disclosedness, subjective domination and infinite repetition. Cf. Brogan (2006, 48).
- 18.
Baracchi speaks of ethics as concerning what is “necessitated by nature but remains within the compass of nature as its complement, or, better, supplement” (Baracchi 2008, 13).
- 19.
Ward speaks of physis in this way particularly in the context of the emergence of the virtues.
- 20.
Brogan continues: “Technē is possible precisely because it attends to this negativity at the heart of natural beings, and brings forth beings by allowing this force of negativity to be revealed” (Brogan 2006, 47). In this regard, technē is possible “because it is an awareness of this fundamental relationality that belongs to beings” (Brogan 2006, 49).
- 21.
The writers of Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature point out that “design itself is part of the production system that is in crisis, preventing sustainable, ethical, and imaginative innovation” (Ginsberg et al. 2014, xxi). Ginsberg pleads for reinventing design as biology is reinvented.
- 22.
Society for Ecological Restoration (2002). Official definition. www.ser.org. Accessed 9 May 2017.
- 23.
Foster addresses this fact, and tries to retrace within what category Aristotle would classify an eco-system. Based on the fact that it does not have an inner cause of motion or rest, Foster classifies an ecosystem accordingly as an “artifact.” She argues that “like an artifact, the biosphere has instrumental value for the beings that inhabit it” (Foster 2002, 414).
- 24.
Applying Resilience Thinking. See: www.stockholmeresilience.org
- 25.
Applying Resilience Thinking. See: www.stockholmeresilience.org
- 26.
As Spirn discusses, the falls and its surrounding landscape have been repeatedly reframed and redesigned and its water flow has been altered.
- 27.
In a similar vein, analyzing the potential and danger offered by synthetic biology, Ginsberg writes that “thinking in more detail about what it means to design biology well could help to avoid repeating past mistakes, like the unintentional spread of genetically modified variants and their knock-on effects, both social and environmental” (Ginsberg et al. 2014, 107).
- 28.
“Applying resilience thinking; seven principles for building resilience in social-ecological systems” (5). See: www.Stockholmresilience.su.se.
- 29.
“Applying resilience thinking; seven principles for building resilience in social-ecological systems” (5). See: www.Stockholmresilience.su.se.
- 30.
“Applying resilience thinking; seven principles for building resilience in social-ecological systems” (3). See: www.Stockholmresilience.su.se.
- 31.
Even more poignantly, we could perhaps speak with Despret of Aristotle being sensitive to both humans and animals performing in a practice that constructs both animal and human: anthropo-zoo-genesis (Despret 2004, 122).
- 32.
As Van Dooren writes: “in most cases, captive Whooping Cranes have not been involved at all in the rearing of their young, many deemed to be inexperienced or poor parents who have in some cases failed to properly incubate or have even broken their own eggs” (Van Dooren 2014, 94).
Bibliography
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life (D. Heller-Roazen, Trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Agamben, G. (1999). Potentialities: Collected essays in philosophy (D. Heller-Roazen, Trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Aristotle. (1936) 1995. On the soul (W. S. Hett, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Aristotle. (1979). Aristotle’s metaphysics (H.G. Apostle, Trans.). Grinnell: The Peripatetic Press.
Aristotle. (1984). Magna Moralia. In J. Barnes (Ed.), Aristotle, The complete works of Aristotle. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Aristotle. (1998). Aristotle’s physics: A guided study (J. Sachs, Trans.). New Brunswick/London: Rutgers University Press.
Aristotle. (1999). Aristotle’s metaphysics (J. Sachs, Trans.). Santa Fe: Green Lion Press.
Aristotle. (2001). On the soul and on memory and recollection (J. Sachs, Trans.). Santa Fe: Green Lion Press.
Aristotle. (2012). Politics (C. D. C. Reeve, Trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Baracchi, C. (2008). Aristotle’s ethics as first philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brogan, W. A. (2006). The Intractable Relationship of Physis and Technē. In D. Hyland & J. P. Manoussakis (Eds.), Heidegger and the greeks: Interpretive essays. Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Calvert, J. (2014). Time as critique. In A. D. Ginsberg et al. (Eds.), Synthetic aesthetics: Investigating synthetic biology’s designs on nature (pp. 205–21). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Costache, A. (2016). Gadamer and the question of understanding: Between Heidegger and Derrida. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Cronon, W. (1996). Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Derrida, J. (2005). Rogues: Two essays on reason. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Despret, V. (2004). The body we care for: Figures of Anthropo-Zoo-Genesis. Body and Society, 10(2-3), 111–134.
Foley, J. (2013). It’s time to rethink America’s corn system. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-to-rethink-corn. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Foster, S. (2002). Aristotle and the environment. Environmental Ethics, 24(4), 409–428.
Gadamer, H.-G. (1980). Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight Hermeneutical Studies on Plato. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ginsberg, et al. (2014). Synthetic aesthetics. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Goodall, J., McAvoy, G., & Hudson, G. E. (2005). Harvest for hope: A guide to mindful eating. New York: Warner Books.
Grosz, E. A. (1999). Becomings: Explorations in time, memory, and futures. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hadot, P. (2006). The veil of isis: An essay on the history of the idea of nature (M. Chase, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Heidegger, M. (1977a). The question concerning technology. In D. F. Krell (Ed.), Basic writings, (W. Lovitt, Trans., pp. 307–342). New York: Harper & Row.
Heidegger, M. (1977b). Building, dwelling, thinking: In D. F. Krell (Ed.), Basic writings (W. Lovitt, Trans., pp. 343–364). New York: Harper & Row.
Heidegger, M. (1998). On the essence and concept of Physis in Aristotle’s Physics: B.1. In W. McNeill (Ed.), Pathmarks (pp. 183–238). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Higgs, E. (2003). Nature by design: People, natural process, and ecological restoration. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Höffe, O. (2003). Aristotle (C. Salazar, Trans.). Albany: SUNY Press.
Kant, I. (1987). Critique of judgment (W. S. Pluhar, Trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co.
Latour, B. (2004). Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Oele, M. (2018). Aristotle on physis: Analyzing the inner ambiguities and transgression of nature. In E. Sanday & S. Kirkland (Eds.), Companion to ancient philosophy. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Ramirez, K. S., Leff J. W., Barberán A., Bates S. T., Betley J., et al. (2014). Biogeographic patterns below ground diversity in New York City’s Central Park are similar to those observed globally. In Proceedings: Royal Society of London B. 281.
Reale, G. (1990). A history of ancient philosophy. Volume II. Plato and Aristotle. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Sallis, J. (1994). Stone. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Society for Ecological Restoration. (2002). Official definition. www.ser.org. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Spirn, A. W. (1996). Constructing nature. In W. Cronon (Ed.), Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Stockholm Resistance Centre. (2015). Applying resilience thinking. http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2015-02-19-applying-resilience-thinking.html. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Sustainable Table. (2017). Industrial crop production. http://www.sustainabletable.org/804/industrial-crop-production. Accessed 9 May 2017.
Van Dooren, T. (2014). Flight ways: Life and loss at the edge of extinction. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ward, J. K. (2005). Aristotle on Physis: Human nature in the ethics and politics. Polis: The Journal of the Society for Greek Political Thought., 22(2), 287–308.
Wieland, W. (1970). Die aristotelische Physik. Göttingen: Vanden Hoeck & Ruprecht.
Xenophon. (1994). Oeconomicus: A social and historical commentary (Sarah B. Pomeroy, Trans.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oele, M. (2017). Folding Nature Back Upon Itself: Aristotle and the Rebirth of Physis . In: Kuperus, G., Oele, M. (eds) Ontologies of Nature. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 92. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66236-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66236-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66235-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66236-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)