Strenghts And Weakness In Kant Argument Of Nature

17 Pages 4223 Words

Strenghts and Weaknesses of Immanuel Kant’s Concept of Nature

A philosophical reflection on a disturbed relation with nature in the light of the ecological crisis

Summary

This study seeks to identify the frameworks of philosophical-theological co-operation between intuitions, ideas, beliefs and
convictions within Western history, which prepared the ground for what is now known as the ecological crisis. This crisis confronts
us with a human self-understanding in relation to nature particular to our time, which has become life threatening to the existence of
large sections of mankind as well as of numerous other living beings. It also aims to uncover those sources of wisdom and
knowledge within the Western history of philosophy and theology, which might be helpful in developing new perspectives for an
appropriate response to this crisis. Concern about living creatures now and in the future as well as doubts about the efficiency of the
contemporary, large-scale application of scientific rationality as the exclusive 'solution' to this crisis are, amongst others the
motivations for this study.

Part I analyses the historical-philosophical developments and conditions of a current way of Western thinking and living, their
immanent dynamics and their relation to the present ecological crisis. This part also investigates Schelsky's thesis that from modern
time onwards a specific epistemological model has become manifest, laying the foundations for our technological-scientific society.
This epistemological model, summarised as 'one only knows the things one constructs', of which Immanuel Kant should be the
originator, can be identified with the adage 'verum et factum convertuntur'. We conclude from a diversity of perspectives that a way
of technological thinking and acting is so implicitly involved in each facet of human life, that its domain of application can hardly be
demarcated. Theoretically defining the conten...