Volume 19, Issue 1, Spring 2022
Christopher D. DiBona
Pages 23-44
https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil2022531116
Listening to Nature¡¯s Voices: Human and Animal Autonomy in Hegel
This article reconstructs Hegel¡¯s account of nature¡¯s autonomy and argues for its significance for his understanding of human autonomy and the relation between nature and spirit. It argues that Hegel treats the actualization of nature¡¯s autonomy¡ªepitomized by the phenomena of animal voice and birdsong¡ªas a vital component of the actualization of free human spirit. Drawing on this analysis, the article then offers an ecological gloss on Hegel¡¯s interest in the progressive actualization of freedom in the modern world. It concludes by sketching a Hegelian account of what it might mean to listen to nature¡¯s voices.