Natura Naturans Research Articles

Mimesis, Metaphysics and Aesthetic Science in Baumgarten and Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy

Abstract: This paper investigates the notion of mimesis in Baumgarten's Meditationes (1735), the inaugural text of modern aesthetics, and Die Geburt der Tragödie , as two exemplary texts of aesthetische Wissenschaft . What meanings and functions do they give to 'mimesis' and the Aristotelian doctrine that art is an imitation ( Nachahmung, Abbild ) of nature? The main thesis is that both texts cast art as a Nachahmung of the creative principle of nature (natura naturans), rather than the order of things (natura naturata); a move that displaces traditional (static, dualistic, passive, representational) notions of mimesis with one that is dynamic, creative and tendentially anti-metaphysical, in line with the mimetic turn. They are exemplary texts of aesthetische Wissenschaft because the way they do this places them at opposite ends of metaphysics.

Medicine and epidemiology require the distinction between curare and sanare

What medicine is and what it does, both in its individual form of medical practice and in its collective form as public health and epidemiology, can only be understood if the underlying concept of nature is understood. The essential distinction is that between producing and produced nature, between natura naturans and natura naturata. So, containing an epidemic is not successful without understanding the "nature as a whole". It would be necessary to consider the interaction of the natural biological development and spread dynamics of the infectious agent with the immunity of the host population and its environment. Where is a curative intervention in the imbalance of epidemic spread possible and in the sense of the medicus curat, i. e. the restoration of the natural balance, necessary and productive? Where is this not indicated in terms of Natura sanat? These questions can only be answered in view of the "nature as a whole".

Ortega y Gasset on the Alleged Inconvenience of Reading Don Quixote at School

This article presents the stance taken by José Ortega y Gasset in the debate that took place in early-twentieth-century Spain regarding the convenience of reading Don Quixote in schools. To this end, we start by describing, albeit briefly, the state of Ortega y Gasset’s thought in 1920, when he writes Biología y pedagogía, the essay with which we shall concern ourselves. According to Ortega y Gasset, Don Quixote must not be read in the classroom because it does not contribute to the development of the students’ spontaneous life, or natura naturans. In order to foster this development, Ortega y Gasset suggests leaving Don Quixote aside and resort to myths such as Odysseus or Heracles because their exploits would excite the students’ vital pulse. However, we suggest several reasons why the aim stated by Ortega y Gasset —and several other highly valuable educational benefits— could be reached resorting to the reading of selected passages of Don Quixote instead of the feats of Odysseus and Heracles.

The Sacredness of Nature: Response to Six Objections to Religious Naturalism

The Sacredness of Nature: Response to Six Objections to Religious Naturalism

BACK TO THE FUTURE: FROM ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY TO WITTGENSTEIN ABSTRACT

At first, one "naked and lonely" fact: nobody saw that philosophy was over. So, at least by induction, we can argue that philosophy never ends. This is regardless of the fact that throughout the history of philosophy, it is accompanied by announcements of the final conclusion, of the end, of philosophy death. From this point of view, Ludwig Wittgenstein does not seem to me to be a figure of the "past," a figure of the archive ― a figure of historical reconstruction. Moreover, the figure of "internal" conceptual deconstruction ― of an influential and respectful way/means of philosophical work ― analytical philosophy. Just the opposite. Ludwig Wittgenstein seems to be a figure of the future of philosophy, a figure of her pure authentic movement. Symbolic figure, but also, actual figure ― a figure of "never-not-complete" philosophy. A figure who signs not a word, spoken in philosophy. But which signs the point of “potential field voltage” of implementation philosophical displaying ― of not indicating things, but of registering traces of truth in individual states, to the limit brought... It is important to understand that this article is not about the philosophical tradition of analytical philosophy. And not about the philosopher himself, about the philosophy of L. Wittgenstein ― in terms of chronology, doxography, the "history of ideas" or theoretical reconstruction in the context ― one or another ― of the "philosophical present", or even, not about "universal with a signature." In this article, in fact, an attempt is opened to show, that analytical philosophy, as a definite way of acting to realize the event of thinking ― all analytical philosophy, as an attempt, as a beginning, as a movement, as a matter, as an activity, ― is phenomenal "natura naturans." It is such as a "topos of reproduction of thinking" in a purely ontological sense. In exchange with it (topos), in fact, Ludwig Wittgenstein, also, unique and one and only here, again, in a completely ontological sense, "demonstrates," that is, it is the actual, "living," perhaps irreplaceable "key" to the problem of limb, access, philosophical content and act. Perhaps having access is it correctly to put an access problem? Therefore, speaking with the help of Maître himself, philosophy is a work and luck to choose the right examples.

The healing-growth future of humanity: regenerative politics and crealectic care

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic served to remind us that despite our Cartesian fantasies of control, naturing nature (natura naturans) is still active in the form of an untamed Other. The dominant reaction on most political sides was anthropocentric: if we do something– a doing generally framed within the scope of technique and management – nature shall go back to the kind and submissive non-viral neutrality that we appreciate in ‘her’ as a supposedly passive resource for productivism. How could humanity – a pandemic species itself and not only metaphorically – be better attuned with the powers of naturing nature, in a posture of co-creation rather than of a reactive technocratic war against the non-periodic or ‘monstrous’ aspects of life? This question is a matter of philosophical health: the future of humanity does not depend on statistics and logistics, but on the possibility of a philosophical (re)generative politics, a trustful care for creative singularity rather than an anxious control and production of regularity. Humanity’s collective health presupposes this reconciliation with naturing nature and the deployment of a global shared cosmology based on the creative healing-growth flux of originative creativity. This regenerative and life-affirming creative Real is here termed ‘Creal’, and we call ‘crealectics’ the generative philosophical health that favours healing growth.

Umwelt-measures. On extensive and intensive measures: Introduction to the special issue ‘Theorising measures, rankings and metrics’

In modern science, we usually associate value with a numerical determination – such as, for instance, the value of the Planck constant. However, once we examine value as a co-original facet of measure, we are led to distinguish – with Spinoza – what we could call the natura naturans of measure from what we understand by measurement as its natura naturata. First, I discuss the tensions and the connections between the extensive side of measures ( molis, magnitude) and their intensive side ( virtus, worth) to provide a preliminary map for plotting the relations between measures and the social–moral–technical environments where they are performed. The second part of the text presents the articles in this special issue, highlighting how they tackle the social ecology of measures drawing from distinct theoretical lineages.

L.N. Tolstoy: The Enlightener who Overcame the Enlightenment

The article considers L.N. Tolstoy not only as a thinker who represents but also accomplishes Enlightenment. Through a comparison of his ideas with philosophy of Spinoza and Diderot, the author clarifies the aspects of the transition from Enlightenment to the unique Tolstoy’s religious and philosophical doctrine. A special attention is paid to the way of thinking, the relation to science and the specifics of the worldview of Tolstoy and Diderot. The contradiction between the way of thinking and the way of life of the three philosophers is revealed. The author also researches their philosophical interpretations of the nature of creative thought. Diderot describes the nature through the concept of paradoxism, Spinoza describes it with the concept of integrity, and Tolstoy uses the method of cohesion that he founds in literary works. If for the philosophers of European Enlightenment, the way of thinking is directly related to human nature, which is presented as a unity of natura naturans and natura naturata, then Tolstoy considers that the most important is a certain a priori sense of life, which is imbued with faith in God and with an instinct of self-giving that is love for the Supreme and other people. The method of cohesion leads Tolstoy away from the direct continuation of educational ideas, stressing the significance of appealing not only to reason but also to creative intuition. Tolstoy gradually moves away from rational perception of Life to its religious and existential foundations. Tolstoy’s worldview undergoes transition from the idea of a natural man to the idea of a human being who lives by commandments of Christ. Starting from the worldview of Enlightenment, Tolstoy comes to the creation of religious and philosophical doctrine, which is relevant to early 20th century.

Ad augusta per angusta : matérialité et spiritualité dans The Pleasures of Imagination de Mark Akenside

Les Plaisirs de l’imagination de Mark Akenside fait d’emblée songer aux essais d’Addison dans The Spectator en raison de la similitude apparente du thème choisi, mais s’en distingue cependant par une démarche qui vise à s’extraire du monde matériel pour tendre vers une profonde spiritualité. Le poème d’Akenside, d’inspiration déiste, se fonde sur le principe dualiste de la natura naturans et de la natura naturata . La nature est l’effet visible du divin invisible. Si les sens ont un rôle majeur d’intermédiaires entre mondes intérieur et extérieur, ils ne peuvent pas être une fin en soi s’ils ne sont pas secondés par un vif désir de spiritualité. Dans cette démarche, le poète occupe une place privilégiée, car lui seul parvient à s’extraire de la gangue du matériel. Il est donc une forme d’élu parmi les hommes. La puissance de son imagination, qu’elle soit immédiate (par les sens), ou créatrice (au-delà des sens) lui confère une connaissance supérieure à celle de ses semblables. Akenside proclame l’omnipotence de l’esprit. Son sensualisme devient spiritualiste et la nature, dans une sorte d’inspiration néo-platonicienne, se fait le reflet d’essences invisibles. The Pleasures of Imagination montre la voie du transcendantal.

Mythological Indifference in Schelling and Nerval

Mythological Indifference in Schelling and Nerval

Chmury Arystofanesa w świetle Fenomenologii ducha. Przyczynek do antropologicznej interpretacji fenomenu komizmu

The starting point of the article is a reconstruction of Hegel’s reflections on comedy contained in the Phenomenology of Spirit. The German philosopher puts forward the thesis that comedy is the culmination of the “religion of art” and exceeds – in terms of the degree of self-knowledge of the spirit and development of freedom – a tragedy. In the second section, I try to show that comedy is a peculiar, underestimated foreground of philosophy, from which one can deduce a post-tragic image of man different from the one proposed by the Lacanian school, Rorty’s ironism or Sloterdijk’s kynism. The point of reference will be Aristophanes’ comedy titled “Clouds”. While analyzing selected topics of this comedy, I will try to justify the thesis that the fate of Strepsjades, the main comic character, shows the process of his inner transformation. In the finale of the comedy, Aristhopanes presents the subject who freed himself from the pressures of particular needs and abstract principles, and become the medium of the birth of comic Dionysus, in which the vital human potential: “more life” (Nietzsche) or Erros (Bielik-Robson) is freed. The new comic subjectivity opposes the terrorizing power of death, fear and necessity. The finale of the comedy presents the reconciliation of subjectivity, reconciled with itself, in which the untapped, creative potential of speech and action is awakened. These comedy-Dionysian births of man open to him the perspective of a new, concrete natura naturans , grounded in a unique, individual existence, anarchic and rebel, but penetrated by a critical reflection that wants the common good in the name of the joy of life.

Theodicy of Benedictus Spinoza

This article examines Baruch Benedictus Spinoza conceptual understanding of the proofs for the existence of God. It traces the evolution of this theme pursuant to the metaphysical studies of Moderns Philosophy. Тhe concept of God the philosophy of Spinoza is considered by exploring the nature of the relations between the transcendent sphere of God and the spiritual world of the human person. Spinoza argues from the possibility of God's existence to God's necessary existence. God is an absolutely infinite substance, necessarily exists, qua Natura Naturans is immutable. God or Nature. The universe is an expression of God's nature, qua Natura Naturata - God is its immanent cause. Spinoza's God is synonymous with Nature. Substance is defined as in itself. Spinoza understands a substance to be something that is self-caused and self-explained. The transcendence is understood as an ontological category, being discussed connection with the key themes of Christian philosophy (Anry Bergson, Moris Blondel and Wladimir Soloviev), such as time and eternity, person and history, creation and God etc. Spinoza's concept of God is referring to the God of the monotheistic religions, God as One Substance, pertains to a concept of the oneness of God, is transcendent and therefore unknowable. Spinoza's definition of God found on the first page of the Ethics: Being absolutely infinite. From the point of view of historiography, the role of the book Ehtics by Spinoza is highlighted.

The Influence of Abraham Cohen de Herrera's Kabbalah on Spinoza's Metaphysics by Miquel Beltràn

Reviewed by: The Influence of Abraham Cohen de Herrera's Kabbalah on Spinoza's Metaphysics by Miquel Beltràn Yitzhak Y. Melamed Miquel Beltràn. The Influence of Abraham Cohen de Herrera's Kabbalah on Spinoza's Metaphysics. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Pp. vi + 449. Cloth, $218.00. Addressing the alleged "great secrets" contained in Scripture, Spinoza wrote in the Theological Political Treatise (TTP): "I have also read, and for that matter, known personally, certain Kabbalistic triflers. I've never been able to be sufficiently amazed by their madness" (TTP chapter 9, Gebhardt III/136/1–2). Were these words Spinoza's only reference to the Kabbalah, we would hardly have any reason to believe that his attitude toward the Kabbalistic literature was anything but dismissive. However, in a 1675 letter to Henry Oldenburg, Spinoza stressed that he shared the view that "all things are in God" with certain ancient traditions (traditionibus) of the Hebrews, "corrupted as they have been in many ways" (Epistle 73, Gebhardt IV/307/11). Since the very meaning of the word 'Kabbalah' in Hebrew is tradition, and since the view of the Kabbalah as a corpus of ancient wisdom that got corrupted was widespread among early modern writers, it is highly likely that Spinoza's claims in the letter to Oldenburg referred to Kabbalistic pantheism (which was the main current within Kabbalistic thought). The precise nature of Spinoza's relation to the Kabbalah has been subject to debate and speculation ever since Wachter's 1699 Spinozismus in Jüdenthumb; and the list of luminaries who took part in this debate include Leibniz, F. H. Jacobi, Salomon Maimon, Schelling, Gershom Scholem, Zev Harvey, and Moshe Idel. The main common feature that Spinoza's [End Page 544] metaphysics shares with Kabbalistic theory is the combination of pantheism and emanation. Furthermore, some Kabbalists conceived the flow of things from the Einsof (the infinite) as strictly necessary. We may also note the significant presence of Kabbalistic works in Spinoza's personal library. Miquel Beltràn's new book is an important contribution to this three-centuries-old debate. The book focuses on Spinoza's relation to the writing of the major Kabbalist of early modern Amsterdam, Abraham Cohen de Herrera (1562(?)–1635). Though Herrera's books were not in Spinoza's library, there are intriguing thematic similarities between his synthesis of Renaissance philosophy and Kabbalah on the one hand, and Spinoza's metaphysics on the other. Beltràn's book is very clear and highly erudite. It relies upon, and engages in, a critical dialogue with the recent wave of studies and translations of Herrera's books, and it is clearly the most comprehensive study of the topic. Some of Beltràn's claims are quite surprising. Thus, for example, he argues that Spinoza's 1656 excommunication was partly due to his interpretation of Herrera's works (44), and that natura naturans "does not refer to substance as substance, but rather as a free cause of that which follows from its nature" (377). The scope of Beltràn's study is quite wide, covering diverse issues such as amor Dei intellectualis, the notion of causa sui, the nature of the attributes, infinity, and acosmism. The book also contains some insightful discussions of Spinoza's reception of Maimonides and of Wachter's reading of Spinoza. Every so often, I found myself in disagreement with the author, but this is a rich, stimulating, and even exciting work, and is clearly one that should be addressed and studied by anyone with a serious interest in Spinoza's relation to the Kabbalah. Yitzhak Y. Melamed Johns Hopkins University Copyright © 2017 Journal of the History of Philosophy, Inc.

Frame and Texture: On the Organization of Space in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Films

The article is devoted to the analysis of visual space organization in Andrei Tarkovsky’s films. This work precisely focuses on the frame, which is a border between different spaces and types of representation inside the image, and the texture, which is considered in connection with the concept of natura naturans, meaning “Nature naturing”. Tarkovsky often constructs his shot in such an order that to create an illusion of existence of multiple dimensions inside it. In his mise en scenes we can frequently see windows, doors, pictures, mirrors, which we can name “frames inside the frame”. In addition, the film director used to choose special textures, which the viewer is unable to identify. Due to deformation of scale, the spectator cannot understand what is depicted on the screen. Tarkovsky shoots such objects and surfaces that can create fantastic landscapes. The camera can find in an ordinary object something unusual, in a finite one — infinity. The substance seems to create new forms in itself, which refers us to the concept of natura naturans. These methods are used almost in all Tarkovsky’s films. His aim was to transform pictorial problematics into a purely cinematic thing, turning its spatial elements into temporal ones, which is the main principle of his visual style.

Nedėkingųjų karalystė. Oikos ir gamta technikos amžiuje

Pasitelkęs techniką, žmogus transformavo patį save į milžinišką išbadėjusią ryklę, nepasotinamą būtybę, kurios šiurpą keliantis vaizdinys tarsi paspruko iš Peterio Bruegelio fantazijų. Šio vartotojiško godumo pasekmė – sąvartynu po atviru dangumi paverstas mus supantis pasaulis, gimdantis naujus košmarus, kurių veikėjai – „žiurkės ir paranoja“. Žmogų, redukuotą iki paprasčiausio vartotojo, apibūdina vampyriškas jo elgesys su jau ir taip nualintos planetos ištekliais. Toks žmogus – parazituojanti būtybė, pasaulio netekęs našlaitis, paskyręs save visų natura naturans gėrybių grobimui. Kai kurie meniniai atvaizdai, pradedant Michelangelo Bounarroti ir baigiant Casparo Davido Friedricho kūriniais, gali būti suprantami kaip pamoka, aiškinanti harmoningo santykio su pasauliu pagrindus, padedanti išvengti Ikaro, ekscentriškojo homo economicus pirmtako, beprotybės. Kol ne vėlu, privalome kuo skubiau susirūpinti mūsų bendrais, Didžiajai Būčiai priklausančiais, namais. Laiko liko nedaug. Mūsų atliekų pripildytos erdvės harmonija negrįžtamai pažeista.

SPACE PHILOSOPHY

INSPIRED by a dynamist Naturphilosophie and looking for a mathematics of the natura naturans, the founders of modern mathematics in Germany made some lasting contributions in the attempt to go beyond perceptible space (“Anschauungsraum”). Hermann Grassmann’s extension theory, Johann Benedict Listing’s topology, Bernhard Riemann’s non-Euclidean manifold theory, Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi’s approach to non-mechanistic theory and last but not least Georg Cantor’s transfinite set theory were all influenced by the tradition of Naturphilosophie. One central motivation for the new mathematics was to decipher the so-called “inner side of nature” which was thought to be invisible but nonetheless physical. As a result, mathematics was understood not only in terms of quantity but of morphogenetic quality and as a tool to recognize the intrinsic possibilities of structuring and organizing nature. This essay focuses on the philosophical viewpoints of Christian Samuel Weiss, Justus and Hermann Grassmann, Bernhard Riemann and their reception of Schelling’s philosophy. Riemann deconstructed empiricist theories of space so as to glean the fundamental constitution of space. One result was that a given, fixed and static metric is not necessary for the understanding of space. The underlying topological substratum (Hans Freudenthal’s term) has no specific metric but is capable of exhibiting any possible metric. Riemann’s claims are compared with Schelling’s theory of space in his “Darstellung des Naturprocesses” (1843–44). My thesis is that Schelling’s philosophy of the emergence of space can be read in Riemannian terms and that it is an interesting model in the context of modern questions.

Reproduction, Race, and Gender in Philosophy and the Early Life Sciences

Reproduction, Race, and Gender in Philosophy and the Early Life Sciences

What is the meaning of potential today?

Abstract This article tries to demonstrate how far in contemporary capitalism, if not to say in capitalist realism, the difference between potentia and potestas has become deeply prone to its own inversion. We are living under circumstances which utilize our potential itself, subsuming it under a world-wide biopolitical calculus, rendering it into finance, and thereby integrating it in a continuously expanding territory that is all the same smooth and striated. Ultimately, there is no clear boundary between potentia and potestas. Our problem is that any clear distinction between constituent acts and already constituted agencies - naturing nature (natura naturans) and natured nature (natura naturata) in Spinoza - respectively, the difference between Multitude and Empire, has almost vanished and cannot be defined that easily.

Party Favors at the Apocalypse

Party Favors at the Apocalypse Erik Butler (bio) Leper Creativity: Cyclonopedia Symposium. Ed Keller, Nicola Masciandaro, and Eugene Thacker, eds. Punctum. http://punctumbooks.com. 310 pages; paper, $17.00; free PDF. Who invited these people? Classically (and etymologically, too), a symposium involves drinking and good conversation. The model is Plato’s celebrated dialogue, in which the topic of love is on the table. Socrates’s sobriety tempers the mood somewhat, but Aristophanes’s riotous fantasy of primordial togetherness—conjoined human halves doing cartwheels across a mythical landscape—assures that good cheer predominates. Not so here. Ed Keller, Nicola Masciandaro, and Eugene Thacker have thrown a hellish get-together where gooey matter makes it all but impossible for Platonic forms to appear. Reza Negarestani’s pitch-black meditations on oil and the sublunary contingencies it incarnates provide the stuff of discourse and thought. For the cyclonopediasts, the end of the world has already begun. Since the path between origin and extinction is not a straight line, Leper Creativity charts the irregular but certain course toward annihilation on various terrains. The proceedings do not unfold against a backdrop of what the Middle Ages, still preserving ancient philosophers’ faith in the world and its ways, called natura naturans. Rather, the whole universe seems to have collapsed upon itself. The primeval root of all things lies in the hostile matter that once was sun and light, but now lies thick and congealed in the stagnant, barren earth. Oil is fuel, but not sustenance—the organic turned enemy of life. Accordingly, the matter of love is a sticky mess. Like so many transsexual Transylvanians, one pictures the symposiasts arriving on iron steeds that belch forth smoke and fire before dancing a theoretical “Time Warp.” The spectacle can be considered inviting and repellent in equal measure. Contributor Zach Blas offers an assessment of “queer openness” that, in his view, often seems as turgid and dull as the beefcake bonehead Rocky Horror. His salutary advice to celebrants of the rainbow is to embrace decay. The rectum is indeed a grave (Leo Bersani), and its heady perfume the immanent hereafter—the “no future” of the surprisingly alive death drive (Lee Edelman). Melanie Doherty, taking up Deleuze and Guattari, sharpens her teeth on the Oedipal fantasies that sustain the likes of Brad, Janet, and other squares enamored of triangular family romances. Discussing cosmic horror fiction, she remarks the corrosive power of the “radical outsider,” who “never appears as a discrete entity or individuated substance beyond vague indications of motion and fog.” It’s a monster, not a choice, and the choice is not ours to make. Love and other “symptoms of transmutation and madness” undo more than a happy couple can bring together. To get the most from this gathering, the gentle reader is advised not to plunge headlong into the murk, but, like another amphibian dwelling between elements, to move back and forth between spots of (relative) stability and the puddles that bubble up from the deep around which the symposiasts assemble. In so doing, she or he can, without getting too messy, explore Robin Mackay’s reflections on geotrauma, Alisa Andrasek’s discussions of dust and detritus, and Ben Woodard’s investigation of how “onto-epistemological solidity” falls prey to decomposition. Occasionally, as in Kate Marshall’s contribution (“Cyclonopedia as Novel [A Meditation on Complicity as Inauthenticity]”), the question arises as to what exactly it means to immerse oneself in this “world without end.” Negarestani himself offers “Notes on the Figure of the Cyclone” in guise of a conclusion: the “meaninglessness of the free sign,” shooting across the horizon like a comet, is as close as we come to a final word. One more example will indicate what lurks within the pages of Leper Creativity. “Gourmandized in the Abattoir of Openness” by editor and instigator Masciandaro pairs quotes from the “black metal” musician Xasthur and German mystic Meister Eckhart. The modern and the medieval voices are united by the view that death inhabits life. The “dark night of the soul,” as St. John of the Cross (1542–1591) put it, is the site where human existence, by embracing its nullity, discerns the prospect, however remote, of redemption...

Kant, Real Possibility, and the Threat of Spinoza

In the first part of the paper I reconstruct Kant’s proof of the existence of a ‘most real being’ while also highlighting the theory of modality that motivates Kant’s departure from Leibniz’s version of the proof. I go on to argue that it is precisely this departure that makes the being that falls out of the pre-critical proof look more like Spinoza’s extended natura naturans than an independent, personal creator-God. In the critical period, Kant seems to think that transcendental idealism allows him to avoid this conclusion, but in the last section of the paper I argue that there is still one important version of the Spinozistic threat that remains.