Studia Phaenomenologica, Volume 25/ 2025: Eco-Phenomenology
ECO-PHENOMENOLOGY
Mădălina Diaconu, Editor’s Introduction: Dwelling the World Well. From the Phenomenology of Nature to Eco-Phenomenology [OPEN ACCESS]
Bruce Bégout, Philosophie de la Nature et écophénoménologie : Le cas Mikel Dufrenne
Abstract: Contemporary ecology and phenomenology share a critical impulse to move beyond the dualism between human beings and the world. Mikel Dufrenne’s work participates in this effort by positing Nature as the originary ground preceding both subject and object. Through the human being’s affective and sensible affinity with the world, this anterior and difficult-to-conceive Nature is disclosed as the common source of both poles. Dufrenne not only theorizes this ontological background, but also sees in it the foundation for a transformation of our ethical and aesthetic relation to nature. His concept of “affinity” plays a pivotal role in articulating an ecophenomenology capable of overcoming ontological dualism without abandoning phenomenological rigor. However, Dufrenne’s speculative move toward a Nature conceived as infinite and inexhaustible raises important questions in light of contemporary ecological thought. Can a philosophy grounded in an unbounded generative power respond adequately to the finitude of ecological systems and the planetary limits we now confront? This article revisits Dufrenne’s philosophy of Nature in order to assess its relevance—and its limits—for an ecophenomenology attuned to both ontological depth and ecological urgency.
Yuriko Saito, Experiencing the World with Care
Abstract: Various disciplines and cultural traditions have characterised the pre-cognitive perception of the world in different ways: an existential angst when confronting the naked world; a wonder-full epiphany induced by disinterested seeing; listening to the voice of nature; and experiencing things of daily use as friends. Insofar as the mode of perceiving the world determines how we interact with it, perception is an ethical act. Our long-held Western dualism and anthropocentrism have been largely responsible for justifying human dominion over the world, leading to today’s environmental crisis. Experiencing things on their own terms with humility and working with them offers a much-needed paradigm change. This mode of experiencing the world helps cultivate the awareness that humans and more-than-humans are co-dwellers of this world, supporting each other with mutual care.
Mădălina Guzun Masoud, La terre se dit de plusieurs façons : Une réflexion aux limites de la phénoménologie
Abstract: This article aims to approach the earth as having an “elemental” nature, which allows us to consider, through experience, a dimension that exceeds experience itself. While distinguishing the earth from both “nature” and “world,” several perspectives on this theme are analysed: the earth as material and as surface, which allows us to understand the characteristic withdrawal in the appearing of things; the earth in the process of vegetal growth; the stable ground and its relation to our body; and the earth as a “whole,” which ensures the continuity of experience. My argument is that the earth allows us to discover, within appearance itself, a dimension of withdrawal deeper than one that would merely be the counterpart of manifestation, thereby opening multiple paths of inquiry—not only for an eco-phenomenology of atmospheres but also for the philosophy of art and a reflection on architecture.
Bence Peter Marosan, Eco-Phenomenology and Eco-Marxism: A Synthetic Foundation for Biocentric Ecosocialism on Husserlian Grounds
Abstract: The distinct and rich traditions of (eco-)phenomenology, (eco-)Marxism, eco-ethics, and Husserlian and Marxist scholarship inform this study’s effort to articulate a synthetic theoretical foundation for a “biocentric ecosocialism” model, primarily based upon Husserlian and eco-Marxist considerations. A Husserlian view might interpret the Marxist project as a phenomenology of phenomena such as alienation, reification, exploitation, and the logic of capital. Systematically reinterpreting Marxism, particularly eco-Marxism, through a Husserlian phenomenological lens could strengthen its foundation, ultimately yielding a perspective that might be termed “biocentric ecosocialism.” This perspective suggests that a proper phenomenological analysis of the phenomenon of life entails normative and ethical imperatives, rejecting the exclusively instrumental treatment of living beings and the non-human natural environment. I aim to demonstrate the legitimacy of these claims from an essentially phenomenological viewpoint.
Nisarga Bhattacharjee, The Ecopoetics of Walten and the Phenomenology of Nature
Abstract: The paper formulates an ecopoetics through the conjunction of three ideas: walten, metaphoricity, and the uncanny. Heidegger’s conceptualisation of the relation between phusis and walten serves as the model for an ecologically viable approach to nature. In The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics and The Introduction to Metaphysics, walten is the pre-onto-theological force involved in the self-forming of nature which can be expressed through the non-apophantic language of metaphors. Metaphoricity indicates the presence of an earth that does not yield to apophantic reductions. The paper critiques the tendency to base nature’s sovereignty on a primordial purity by instead emphasising the fecundity of nature that proves too uncanny to be the basis of some oikos. Ecopoetics is the contemplation of this impossibility which nonetheless enables existence through a gesture of letting be.
Dragos Duicu, Que veut la nature, que veut la vie ? Deux approches phénoménologiques convergentes de la téléologie
Abstract: Jonas’s strategy of proposing an ontological foundation for ecology—and thus defending nature and the future of life on Earth against the unrestrained advance of technology—consists in highlighting human life as the apex of a unitary tendency within nature itself: a tendency toward the ever-greater affirmation of being, a movement betrayed, for instance, by nihilism. In Patočka, consciousness or the soul—that within us which is capable of entering into an explicit relationship with the world as a whole, the soul as the manifest appearance of the world to someone—is conceived as a dimension without which the world would be impoverished, and thus as one rooted in the deepest layers of the world’s foundation. Patočka justifies this position through a line of reasoning with a strong teleological thrust, one that, in many of its key moments, closely resembles Jonas’s attempt to ground ecology in ontology. This contribution follows these two closely aligned arguments, both of which share a distinct teleological character.
Max Schaefer, Restoring the Value of Nature: Michel Henry’s Eco-Phenomenology of Life
Abstract: Environmental philosophy in the Western world has shifted between two poles: one in which human beings are regarded as separate from nature, and another in which they are seen as part of it. This paper argues that Michel Henry’s phenomenology of life presents us with a third option that stands outside of these views, one in which nature is experienced as the absolute resistance to the effort of our originary bodily life. As I will try to make plain, this position provides us with another basis for assigning value to nature than those that have guided environmental philosophy to date. In the opening section of this paper, I lay out how environmental philosophy has thus far alternated between the two positions in question, and why neither of them provides a feasible foundation for an ethical relationship with nature. Following this, I will show that Henry presents us with a third option by detailing how nature is before all else experienced as an absolute resistance that defies intuition and presence, and thus as part of an originary community of life, which is causally and ontologically irreducible to our subjective biological life and the natural world to which it opens us. Finally, I demonstrate how this position goes some way toward addressing certain shortcomings of the alternatives in question, while also highlighting where Henry’s conclusions remain problematic.
Raluca Oancea, The Entanglement of Eco Art and Eco-Phenomenology: Aesthetics of Uncanny Moods and the Sublime Earth
Abstract: This paper explores the potential of eco-phenomenology to address Anthropocene ecological crises and promote eco-justice, while criticizing the positivist foundations of environmental studies. It highlights phenomenology’s transformative power beyond academia by examining its affinities with eco art, which also emphasizes lived experience. Key concepts like earth, dwelling, and flesh are investigated to show how eco art works illuminate philosophical ideas and how phenomenology aids in interpreting and theorizing art. By drawing inspiration from art works that present the non-(re)presentable earth or wild being and engage with aesthetic categories like the uncanny and the non-anthropocentric sublime, this paper outlines a draft of critical aesthetics focused on rehabilitating body and sensory perception, aiming to transcend traditional subject-object and nature-art dichotomies.
Riccardo Valenti, Confronting Climate Change: A Phenomenological Journey
Abstract: The following contribution focuses on the crucial role of technology in comprehending climate change and global warming. It emphasises that this phenomenon is imperceptible and enigmatic to traditional phenomenological approaches. To answer this, the text highlights the arguments scholars such as the late Don Ihde and Timothy Morton put forth about the imperative need to utilise technology to sensibly comprehend and raise awareness of this complex reality, each employing distinct conceptual frameworks. The essay examines how it is feasible to integrate these emerging technological resources without disregarding the foundational assumptions that guide our sensory intuition, shaped by the influence of Husserl’s ideas.
Abiodun Paul Afolabi, African Environmental Philosophy With(out) Eco-phenomenology?
Abstract: There has been relatively little reflection from African environmental philosophers on the specific contributions that eco-phenomenology, insofar as it constitutes a distinctive philosophical approach, might make to their field. In this article, I critically evaluate key approaches in African environmental philosophy and argue that the implicit aim of early African environmental philosophers appears limited to employing analytic and hermeneutic methods to rethink anthropocentric attitudes—those largely responsible for upsetting the balance of the natural environment—without any explicit engagement with eco-phenomenological principles or methods. I discuss possible reasons for this neglect and show how African environmental philosophy could benefit from adopting an eco-phenomenological perspective, particularly in revealing the problematic assumptions embedded in the ontological ideal of the interdependence of all things in nature. I conclude that eco-phenomenology has the potential to advance environmental thinking in Africa, provided its methodological insights are adequately taken up.
Aurélie Javelle, Apprendre à percevoir la nature : La phénoménologie comme outil de décentrement
Abstract: Environmental anthropology, from which I situate this work, is connected to ecophenomenology in its aim to move beyond anthropocentrism by questioning the grounding of human–nature relations in a naturalist ontology. Phenomenology, understood as a praxis of critical reflection, appears to contribute to the evolution of human ontologies: it offers the possibility of profoundly transforming modes of being human by enabling a decentring of consciousness. This work focuses on a psycho-corporeal practice as phenomenology in action, used to challenge ontological constructs concerning nature in agricultural contexts. Could such a practice constitute a phenomenological activation capable of transforming the relationship between professionals and the world? If so, it may lead us to question the connections between ways of inhabiting the world and ways of practising agriculture.
VARIA
Francesco Scagliusi, Das Problem des „Scheins“ in Heideggers Interpretation der phänomenologischen Methode
Abstract: Although Paragraph 7 of Being and Time is one of the most commented-on paragraphs of Heidegger’s main work, an extensive interpretation of the notion of “semblance” (Schein) has been neglected by most of the literature. Most studies merely note that Schein represents a contingent way of covering-up a phenomenon. However, in this paragraph, Heidegger explicitly distinguishes between contingent and necessary coverings-up. In the present paper, I argue that this difference between contingent and necessary coverings-up received a more extensive analysis in the Marburg lecture courses—especially in GA 17, GA 19, and GA 20—and that this distinction is crucial for understanding Heidegger’s phenomenological description of Being. In particular, the paper illustrates that the possibility of a contingent covering-up corresponds to Heidegger’s treatment of the ψεῦδος in GA 17, while Heidegger develops the possibility of a necessary covering-up in his discussions of ἕτερον in GA 19 and Husserl’s “categorial intuition” in GA 20. Thus, I argue that Schein, as a necessary covering-up, is Heidegger’s phenomenological way of understanding Being. Being is not something metaphysically hidden behind the phenomenon, but rather shows itself phenomenologically in every entity as its unthematically apprehended condition of possibility.
Karl Kraatz, Martin Heideggers formal anzeigende Ethik. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Kritik an seinem ethischen Denken
Abstract: Martin Heidegger’s philosophy has always been criticized for its lack of ethics or its decidedly unethical character. This criticism can be divided into two categories: one critique is aimed at the subjectivism of Heidegger’s philosophy and the other is a criticism of the displacement of ethics by ontology, claiming that the question of being excludes the questions of ethics. This criticism is particularly important because it is often directly linked to Heidegger’s commitment to National Socialism. In this paper, I will show how Heidegger could react to this twofold critique by referring to the method of formal indication. The main argument is that the formality of Heidegger’s originary ethics is both its advantage and its distinguishing feature compared to modern ethics. This advantage of Heidegger’s originary ethics is that it makes possible an originally moral behaviour.
Hongyu Li, Yilin Hu, Heidegger on Freedom and Technology: Rethinking the Technology/technologies Debate [OPEN ACCESS]
Abstract: The longstanding and often unproductive debates among North American philosophers of technology—particularly over the distinction between Technology and technologies—call for a renewed examination of Heidegger’s ideas. This paper argues that, despite their differences, both camps share a concern central to The Question Concerning Technology: the pursuit of a free relationship between human existence and technology. We show that Heidegger paradoxically holds that while modern technology reduces beings to mere resources, authentic freedom can emerge from within this very condition. Drawing on an existential rather than purely ontological reading of Heidegger, and engaging with figures such as Don Ihde, Peter-Paul Verbeek, and Andrew Feenberg, we reinterpret the notion of freedom in terms of horizonality and historicity. This approach, we suggest, offers a way to overcome the Technology/technologies divide and to revitalize contemporary philosophy of technology by bridging transcendental and empirical perspectives.
Mateo Belgrano, The Shadow of Kantian Schematism behind Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy of Art
Abstract: During the winter semester of 1925/26, in his seminar on logic, Martin Heidegger suggested that artistic representation can be seen as a form of schematization—an extension of Kant’s original concept of the schema. What should we make of this passing mention of art in the 1925/26 seminar? How does it relate to “The Origin of the Work of Art”? Did schematism motivate Heidegger to reflect on art? I propose that the notion of the schema is crucial for understanding the role of art in Heidegger’s philosophy. My argument is that, having emphasized the ontological difference for so long, Heidegger requires a mediator to bridge the gap between the ontological and the ontic dimensions—for the former to function as a condition of possibility for the latter. In this context, the work of art serves as such a mediator, akin to the Kantian schema, bringing together two heterogeneous elements.
Michel Dalissier, Gadamer, the Hermeneutical Process and the Trinitarian Analogies
Abstract: In this paper, I methodically dissect the fundamental hermeneutical process that Hans-Georg Gadamer theorizes in Truth and Method, at the light of the notion of meaning. I discuss the three moments of understanding, interpretation, and application, as well as their mutual relations, and place in the fore the grounding motive of correctness. Working from here, I reflect on the religious dimension of such a threefold structure, and analyse the main notions of Trinity, Incarnation, sacrifice, predication and event, to sketch how Gadamer’s approach analogically connects to the Christian dogmatic conceptual framework. I thereby explore the hypothesis of a Trinitarian structuring of the hermeneutical process itself, and probe its acute philosophical and theological significance.
BOOK REVIEWS
Raluca Oancea
Mădălina Diaconu, Aesthetics of Weather (Bloomsbury, 2024)
Mădălina Diaconu
David Seamon, Phenomenological Perspectives on Place, Lifeworlds, and Lived Emplacement (Routledge, 2023)
Mădălina Diaconu
Gernot Böhme, Leib. Die Natur, die wir selbst sind (Suhrkamp, 2019)
ISSN: 1582-5647 (print)
ISSN: 2069-0061 (online)
