Eco-Phenomenology: Life, Human Life, Post-Human Life in the Harmony of the Cosmos
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Analecta Husserliana The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research Volume CXXI Eco-Phenomenology: Life, Human Life, Post-Human Life in the Harmony of the Cosmos Edited by William S. Smith Jadwiga S. Smith Daniela Verducci 123 Analecta Husserliana The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research Volume CXXI Founder Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, The World Phenomenology Institute, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA Series Editors William S. Smith, Executive President of the World Phenomenology Institute, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA Jadwiga S. Smith, Co-President of the American Division, The World Phenomenology Institute, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA Daniela Verducci, Co-President of the European Division, The World Phenomenology Institute, Macerata, Italy Published under the auspices of The World Phenomenology Institute A-T. Tymieniecka, Founder More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5621 William S. Smith • Jadwiga S. Smith Daniela Verducci Editors Eco-Phenomenology: Life, Human Life, Post-Human Life in the Harmony of the Cosmos Editors William S. Smith Jadwiga S. Smith World Phenomenology Institute World Phenomenology Institute Hanover, NH, USA Hanover, NH, USA Daniela Verducci World Phenomenology Institute Hanover, NH, USA Analecta Husserliana ISBN 978-3-319-77515-9 ISBN 978-3-319-77516-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77516-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018943300 © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Exergo/Epigraph Actually, my account of ontopoiesis is an eco-phenomenology. Ontopoiesis reaches to the very germs of ecology: development and genesis. I have published several essays related to this. In The Passions of the Earth [Analecta Husserliana, Vol. LXXI], I show how the human being is an ecological fruit and how the human being is formed by the earth and sucks the juices of the earth. I have also written things about the cosmos and the cosmic dependencies of the human mind and human development. You see, the self-individualization of life, which is the basic instrument of ontopoiesis, draws upon the laws of the cosmos and the earth. This is the most fundamental ecology that can be done. So, we have just touched the essence of my philosophy, the base—our relationship to the earth and to the cosmos. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka v Preface Eco-phenomenology. Life, Human Life, Post-Human Life in the Harmony of the Cosmos addresses the highly topical theme of ecology in markedly heterodox terms. In fact, the context of all the contributions is the Eco-phenomenology formulated by Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka on the basis of the results of her over 40 years of inquiry into the phenomenology of life. In an interview given on the occasion of her receiving an honorary degree from the University of Bergen in 2008, Tymieniecka unhesitatingly defined asEco- phenomenology the innovative vision of being in becoming that flowed from her discovery of the ontopoiesis of life, or in other words, the spontaneous and perva- sive movement of the Logos of life itself, which reaches to the very germs of ecol- ogy, which are development and genesis, and which therefore surprisingly forms the basis for all theorizations of Ecology, Environmental Studies, and Ethics, as well as for innocent trust in science and in technological innovation in the field of human life and of the natural environment. In fact, the ontopoiesis of life is not one among many dynamic lines along which life evolves, but on the contrary, it is the funda- mental logos/force of the auto-individualization of being in becoming, that from which every evolutive movement emanates and according to which and because of which all becoming harmoniously develops. The rhythm of the ontopoietic logos of life pervades every form of being, inanimate, animate, and human, and with its cre- ative productivity conducts the entire natural being beyond itself toward a transcen- dental destination, one as mysterious as its logoic source. Since it belongs to life, such a logos/force possesses the principal qualities of life: it is sentient and meta- morphic. In other words, the ontopoietic logos of life is able not only to “feel/sense” the vectors of its dynamism which produce themselves in an on-going way, but also to make use of them, metamorphosing itself, transforming its own modality of becoming, to continue seamlessly or rather in a discrete continuity its productive auto-movement by the new means that have come to light. This can be observed, for example, in the crucial evolutive passage from natural life to the human condition, in which the auto-individualizing power of the ontopoietic logos of life continues to vii viii Preface act effectively, even though it has changed the supports of its own dynamic modality and so uses the free vector of the human will and of imaginatio creatrix, which mysteriously has taken the place of the deterministic vector of the laws and automa- tisms of nature. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka died in June of 2014, and this Volume 121 is the first in the “Analecta Husserliana” series, which she founded, to be published after her death. For this reason, the first part of the volume features a tribute to her memory written by Olga Louchakova Schwartz, “The Symphony of Sentience, in Cosmos and Life: In Memoriam Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.” This chapter explores whether phenomenology, as a cognitive enterprise of sentience, extends beyond the death of the physical body, turning from the phenomenology of life to the philosophy of life. The symphonic form of the paper in four movements, Allegro, Moderato, Minuet, and Finale Glorioso, is inspired by Tymieniecka’s Christo-Logos: Metaphysical Rhapsodies of Faith (Itinerarium mentis in Deo), The Fullness of the Logos in the Key of Life – Book II, published in 2013, in Volume 111 of the Analecta Husserliana series. The fecundity of the eco-phenomenology of Tymieniecka emerges here man- ifestly. In fact, in virtue of the unifying and integrating power of the ontopoietic logos of life, discovered in the course of her research into the phenomenology of life to be the driving and ordering force that is the basis of all evolution, the usual eco- logical outlook centered on relationships among organisms or groups of organisms, and their natural environment can expand beyond the confines of so-called nature, because the human condition originated from it and can broaden into the supernatu- ral, through the advent, in the midst of the just conquered unity-of-everything-there- is-alive, of the free human creativity that facilitates the passage of the ontopoiesis of life and its logos not only to the esthetic and ethical dimensions, but also to the religious dimension of human experience. Part II of this volume, Introduction to the Topic, focuses on certain aspects that determine this condition of the ecological overflow, so to speak, of Tymieniecka’s eco-phenomenology. First of all, it describes her re-forming of the phenomenologi- cal method, by which she reached her cognitive results, and which is an ecological reform inasmuch as it sought to ensure that theoretical thought would have the maxi- mum inter-relation with the broader environmental and historical context of living beings and of experiences in general. In fact, as Daniela Verducci has observed, even though Tymieniecka’s speculation was situated in the American orbit, “neophiliac” by definition, it was always nourished by constant and deep exchanges with the more than thousand years of philosophical tradition that has flowed into Italian culture, starting with Parmenides of Elea and passing through Saint Thomas Aquinas to the more recent forms of Italian theory, as Dario Gentili has expressed it. In this way, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka was able to cast her phenomenological gaze starting from the most mature peak of Western thought, since, as Roberto Esposito argues, the Italian type of thinking is rightly re-evaluated in many quarters as a “living thought,” for it seems to be the only bearer nowadays of the fruit of manifold and complex speculative sedimentations, which elsewhere have been swept away instead. Preface ix Even in regard to Husserlian phenomenology, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka adopts an ecological approach, rather than a purely speculative one, as she welcomes inte- riorly the seminal virtualities engendered by Husserl’s thought, so that they may continue to germinate, inasmuch as they are grafted onto her current and living thought. In this way, through leaning forward from the platform of consolidated phenomenological results, Tymieniecka was able to realize an “intuitive re-sowing” of the method and classical themes of phenomenology, from the point of view of life.