Volume 20, Issue 1, Spring 2023
Ana Vieyra
Pages 127-154
https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil202351130
Naturalizing Value and Hegel¡¯s Notion of the Impotence of Nature
In this paper I suggest an alternative reading of the value of Hegel¡¯s systematic approach to nature from the perspective of environmental philosophy. Taking the paradigmatic example of the ¡°new materialist¡± ontologies, I present the problems with an inflationary justification for the argument for the need of a shift in the ¡°scientific¡± representation of nature. On the basis of these problems, I suggest that Hegel¡¯s view of nature as axiologically impotent sheds light into why emancipatory environmental theory needs not hinge on a determinate understanding of nature. In my reading, this rejection can be harmonized with the asymmetric nature of our responsibility towards non-human nature.