Cosmophany : the living art of opening ambient worlds

Augustin BERQUE

Abstract:
The word « art » is here understood in the double meaning of its Indo-European root AR-, i.e. an idea of joint and an idea of arrangement. How do living beings arrange the juncture between themselves and the environment ? The question will not be considered only in ecological (or biological) terms, but also in ontological and logical terms ; that is, onto/logically as well. It implies the subjecthood of the living, as advocated by Uexküll (1864-1944) and later by Imanishi (1902-1992), including the human, as advocated by Watsuji (1889-1960), in the epistemic frame of mesology (Umweltlehre, fûdoron 風土論 : the study of milieux, or ambient worlds), which implies not only an overcoming of modern dualism and mechanicism, but also a sublation (Aufhebung) of two incompatible logics : the Aristotelian logic of the identity of the subject, and the Nishidian logic of the identity of the predicate, as represented by the concept of trajection (tsûtai 通態).

Bio:
Augustin BERQUE
(1942-), a geographer and orientalist, is a retired director of studies in mesology at the EHESS. A member of the Academia europaea, he was in 2009 the first Westerner to receive the Fukuoka Grand Prize for Asian cultures, and in 2018 was awarded the International Cosmos Prize. Latest books : Recouvrance. Retour à la terre et cosmicité en Asie orientale (Éoliennes, 2022) ; Entendre la Terre. À l’écoute des milieux humains (Le Pommier, 2022) ; Dryades et ptérodactyles de la Haute Lande. Dessins et légendes (Non-Agir, 2022).

URL : https://ecoumene.blogspot.com/