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12/09/2022 | Porträts und Geschichten

How to study the relationship between man and nature?

In the format "Kassel asks, Kassel researches", Prof. Philip Hogh answers a question from Kassel citizens that was collected in the project ZUKUNFTSDIALOGE.

In the format "Kassel asks, Kassel researches," scientists from the University of Kassel answer questions from Kassel citizens that were collected in the project ZUKUNFTSDIALOGE. The interdisciplinary collaboration between UniKasselTransfer, the Staatstheater Kass el and Scientists for Future Kassel is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the Science Year 2022 - Inquired! In different formats, the dialogue between science, art and society will be opened in order to embark together on the search for alternative paths to a more sustainable society.
More info: www.uni-kassel.de/go/zukunftsdialoge

My name is Philip Hogh. I have been a professor of practical philosophy here in Kassel since April 2022, and I focus my research on questions of critical theory, social philosophy, natural philosophy, and anthropology. And this includes questions of sustainability and climate change.

The question of how to study the relationship between humans and nature can be answered in many different ways, because there are already many different ways in which humans relate to nature. For example, when you lie down in a meadow and look up at the sky to rest, that's a relationship with nature. When you farm, that's a relationship to nature. When you mine lignite, that's a relationship with nature. And finally, the way we organize our social life, how we use resources, how we get around, is also a relationship to nature. So all of that would have to be studied if you want to study the relationship of human beings to nature.

Now, since I'm a philosopher, I do that in a very specific particular way. In philosophy, too, there are different ways of dealing with this relationship. Theoretical philosophy, for example, would deal primarily with basic conceptual questions, that is, what one actually means when one speaks of nature, what the natural sciences can say about nature, how truthful statements of nature are, and so on. Practical philosophy, on the other hand, the field in which I am active, is concerned with the question of how the relationship of man or people should be better shaped to nature, so that it is good and prosperous for both people and nature.

The question of how the relationship between man and nature should be shaped in such a way that it is good for both man and nature is, of course, of considerable explosive importance in view of our present time, because global warming is already having catastrophic consequences for both man and nature. That's why we should really be concerned above all with the question of how we can stop the destructive processes that are taking place as quickly and effectively as possible. Two dominant narratives can be identified in the current discussions: On the one hand, the notion of a green and sustainable capitalism in which everything remains as it is now, only with less ecological damage. On the other hand, the notion of an ecological apocalypse that already puts our actions under a logic of constraint in order to avoid doom.

The thing that particularly interests me in my research is how to think about the human-nature relationship in contrast to these two dominant narratives of ecological apocalypse and green capitalism. On the one hand, this would mean both abolishing the exploitation of humans under capitalism and changing the exploitation of non-human resources, natural resources. And the future would then ultimately be something open, as well as something still to be fought for and created.