Abstract
I would like to investigate in this chapter what at first might seem a difficult position: a phenomenology of nature in an Arendtian vein. It might seem that such a position would be fundamentally anthropocentric given the tendencies of phenomenology to begin from the subject position and, in particular, given Arendt’s focus on how the human being differs from “nature.” What I would like to tease out, however, are the ways in which phenomenology and Arendt can help us to understand nature not as something over against which we formulate ourselves, nor as some thing that is in itself, but as that with which we are intimately intertwined and without which we are not. I will begin by describing generally how we can conceive of a phenomenology of nature through Husserl’s notion of lifeworld. Then, I will examine how Arendt’s notion of the vita activa supports a phenomenology of nature that is neither anthropocentric nor objectifying of nature, but is an interweaving of human and world. Finally, I will show how this phenomenological understanding offers us a richer way to conceive of ourselves in relation to other beings and to the world.
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Notes
- 1.
See Husserl (1970), especially Part III A; Husserl (1973), especially pp. 3–8; Husserl (1976), especially Dritter Teil: Der Weg in die Phänomenologische Transcendentalphilosophie in der Rückfrage von der vorgegebenen Lebenswelt aus; and Husserl (1992), especially Part II Entwürfe ‘Beilagen’ und ‘Einlagen’ zum Typoskript (Nov. 1935 zu sommer 1936).
- 2.
Steinbock (1995), 112.
- 3.
For more on this distinction see Donohoe (2014).
- 4.
See Oliver (2015), 23.
- 5.
Arendt (1958), 2.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
See Heidegger (2008).
- 8.
One might wonder whether we could adjust to life on Mars and thereby be Martians ourselves. I have argued elsewhere (see Donohoe 2014) that it is not possible for an alienworld to ever fully become homeworld. This does not mean that we could not adapt to some degree, but it would still be measured in terms of homeworld. Across multiple generations this may be something that could wane, but for the generation that traveled from Earth to Mars, that would not be the case and they would still pass along many Earth ways to those born or replicated on Mars such that it would take many generations for Earth ways to no longer be homeworld ways.
- 9.
Arendt (1958), 2.
- 10.
See Oliver (2015, ch. 3).
- 11.
Arendt (1958), 7.
- 12.
Oliver (2015), 84.
- 13.
Arendt (1958), 106.
- 14.
See James (2009).
- 15.
Taminiaux (1997), 83.
- 16.
Arendt (1958), 97.
- 17.
Taminiaux (1997), 85.
- 18.
Arendt (1958), 178.
- 19.
For support for this see Willett (2014).
- 20.
Merleau-Ponty (1983), 148.
- 21.
Merleau-Ponty (2003), 175.
- 22.
Merleau-Ponty (2003), 173.
- 23.
See Buchanan (2008).
- 24.
von Uexküll (1982), 30.
- 25.
See von Uexküll (2001).
- 26.
Oliver (2015), 91.
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Donohoe, J. (2017). Edmund Husserl, Hannah Arendt and a Phenomenology of Nature. In: Fóti, V., Kontos, P. (eds) Phenomenology and the Primacy of the Political. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 89. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56160-8_10
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