THE COLLAPSE OF THE CLEAVAGE BETWEEN NATURALHISTORY AND HUMAN HISTORY

Abstract

This article has endeavoured to challenge theories according to which cosmo-telluric upheavals have blurred the boundaries between natural history and human history to the point of collapsing the old humanist distinction between these two domains. We have argued that humanity is in an unprecedented situation in that it has inaugurated a new history of nature with an apocalyptic perspective, but it is excessive to believe that the conjunction between natural history and human history is a foregone conclusion for ever and ever. We have reached the conclusion that the history of nature does not have a history that is partly entangled with the history of man, but that the action of man affects fundamental processes in nature that were once considered to be able to determine human history, without being determined by it. Previously non-reciprocal action has become reciprocal, but this does not mean the end of natural history and with it the end of the great division. Nature is seriously threatening to determine human history, but this does not break down the old Nature-Culture format. To reach this result, we have used both the direct method of analysis and the historical method.