Autore
Hatab, Lawrence J.

Titolo
The Complexity of Nietzsche’s Post-Anthropic Naturalism
Periodico
Estetica
Anno: 2025 - Fascicolo: 2 - Pagina iniziale: 391 - Pagina finale: 406

This essay argues that Nietzsche’s naturalism and his call to embrace the earth offer a unique response to the crisis of the so-called Anthropocene – understood as the pervasive effects of human activity on the planet. Nietzsche’s naturalism is unique because it does not coalesce with various relevant models of the humanity-nature relation: religious supernaturalism, scientific naturalism, humanistic and technocratic counter-naturalism, Romanticism, eco-centrism, and trans-humanism. Rather, Nietzsche’s «translation» of humanity back into nature (BGE: 230) coincides with his concept of will to power (BGE: 36), which involves neither quiescence, nor domination, nor harmony. Beginning with BT, Nietzsche understands nature to be a precarious process of formation and deformation, of reciprocal strife between contravening forces. Human artistic and productive powers are called an «imitation» of such natural energies (BT: 2, 4), which however runs up against necessary limits, thus having a tragic structure. Accordingly, the Anthropocene can be seen as an understandable consequence of human creativity and productivity that faces a planetary tragedy of environmental degradation. My thesis is that the ambiguities in Nietzsche’s naturalism make an effort to situate it in contemporary environmental philosophy difficult – but perhaps revelatory, precisely because its tangled complexity avoids problematic polarities and univocal judgments. My text will explore three main topics: 1) the historical range of different conceptions of nature and its relation to humanity; 2) Nietzsche’s unique approach to natural human existence; and 3) an under-appreciated aspect of Nietzsche’s thinking, namely «natural» or spontaneous behaviors exhibited in instincts, habits, and the arts – which both connects and separates human beings and animals, and which ever-insulates human life from complete rational governance. A summary conclusion will be that Nietzsche’s naturalism is a viable and nuanced approach to the perplexity of measuring the value of human activity in its natural setting. I do not argue that Nietzsche’s philosophy offers some comprehensive contribution to environmental philosophy, only that certain key features in his writings open up unique pathways for thinking about human life on earth.



SICI: 2039-6635(2025)2<391:TCONPN>2.0.ZU;2-T
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.14648/119053
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.14648/119053

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