Ecology and Conservation Biology

In this paper, we argue that the concept of ‘species’ should not be the main focus of research and policies in biodiversity conservation. Diversity is important at all levels of life: within species as well as among them and within and among ecosystems. First, we give a brief overview of the debate about the necessity to find a unified concept of ‘species’. In this, we side with Charles Darwin, who insisted that no strict definition could be given to this term, (...) which is ultimately a matter of arbitrary and pragmatic human language. This did not worry Darwin, and neither should it concern biologists or ecologists today. Darwin's great discovery relied on a recognition of the many differences within species, not on their similarities. Next, we argue that the focus on species and the neglect of other diversity measures in the conservation discourse have led to problems in public perception of—and policies on—conservation and biodiversity. In areas with few species, intraspecific diversity is often of utmost importance to ecosystem processes and functions, and such regions may provide the environmental conditions that enable and promote the diversification of specialised subgroups in the absence (or reduction) of interspecific competition. We give some examples of these processes based on research in marine and freshwater ecosystems, focusing on Iceland and the subarctic region. Finally, we refer to alternative, emerging methodologies of assessing ecosystem health which go beyond the quantitative method of counting species and subspecies and instead emphasise more complex phenomena such as relations, interactions and processes. These approaches, we suggest, are consistent with the philosophical tradition called ‘process ontology’, and we argue that both ecological research and conservation policy can benefit from a process philosophical perspective. Finally, we briefly discuss our motivations for finding this topic to be of importance. (shrink)

Abstract -/- -/- Current climate models rely on probability-driven emissions tracking and mitigation strategies, which fail to account for the structured resonance dynamics of planetary systems. CODES introduces a structured resonance-based framework that reinterprets environmental stability as a function of phase-locked coherence rather than stochastic fluctuations. -/- -/- This model posits that climate instability arises from resonance disruptions across atmospheric, biological, and energy systems, rather than isolated excesses of carbon or pollutants. Instead of treating emissions as independent variables, CODES reformulates (...) them as phase misalignments within a planetary-scale resonance system. -/- -/- Key insights include: -/- 1. Fossil fuel combustion disrupts structured thermal resonance, not just greenhouse gas levels. -/- 2. Industrial agriculture breaks microbial phase-locking cycles, accelerating soil entropy rather than just releasing CO₂. -/- 3. Plastic waste interferes with biological oscillatory coherence, altering cellular and ecological resonance patterns. -/- 4. Energy grids introduce chaotic frequency imbalances, amplifying entropy loss instead of optimizing power distribution. -/- 5. Urbanization follows inefficient non-fractal growth patterns, disrupting local environmental phase-locking. -/- -/- CODES reformulates these challenges through deterministic resonance corrections, replacing traditional mitigation strategies with phase-locking restoration methods. This includes: -/- • Resonance-driven energy storage and distribution systems that eliminate phase loss. -/- • Phase-matched carbon reintegration processes that restore planetary thermal equilibrium. -/- • Fibonacci-based agricultural restructuring to phase-lock soil and microbial dynamics. -/- • Resonance-aligned biomaterials that self-degrade in structured time intervals. -/- • Fractal-driven urban expansion models that prevent environmental overload and instability. -/- -/- By aligning climate solutions with structured emergence rather than probability-based interventions, CODES provides a coherence-driven framework for planetary restoration—one that does not resist entropy but guides it back into structured equilibrium. (shrink)

After so many decades dominated by molecular biology, it is important to remember that scientists have also devoted much attention to entire living organisms and ecosystems. In this spirit, Sharon...

Despite its relative infancy, ecological science plays a pre-eminent role in current environmental decision-making globally and has, over recent decades, permeated a broad range of academic disciplines. Developments in two areas of philosophical thought in particular, environmental aesthetics and the aesthetics of science, beg an exploration of their intersection with respect to the role of aesthetics in ecological science. Here, we provide a contemporary synthesis of both environmental aesthetics and aesthetics of science to explore aesthetic dimensions of contemporary ecological science, (...) highlighting three main areas of convergence: 1.) the influence of aesthetic experiences and judgements of nature by ecologists on ecological science and our contemporary understanding of nature; 2.) the development and role of ecological ‘taste’ amongst ecologists; and 3.) moral, cultural and political implications of the ecological imagination as underpinned by current ecological science. We identify a risk for feedback mechanisms to perpetuate a relatively homogeneous ecological aesthetic as a result of reciprocal influences between ecological science and society which may further promote inadvertent policy advocacy and stifle scientific innovation. We suggest ecological science would benefit from increased aesthetic literacy and reflection by broadening the ecological imagination and intentionally facilitating more diverse and equitable science to inform policy outcomes. Our argument should be of interest to philosophers of science, ecologists and those that draw on their outputs. (shrink)

Despite its relative infancy, ecological science plays a pre-eminent role in current environmental decision-making globally and has, over recent decades, permeated a broad range of academic disciplines. Developments in two areas of philosophical thought in particular, environmental aesthetics and the aesthetics of science, beg an exploration of their intersection with respect to the role of aesthetics in ecological science. Here, we provide a contemporary synthesis of both environmental aesthetics and aesthetics of science to explore aesthetic dimensions of contemporary ecological science, (...) highlighting three main areas of convergence: 1.) the influence of aesthetic experiences and judgements of nature by ecologists on ecological science and our contemporary understanding of nature; 2.) the development and role of ecological ‘taste’ amongst ecologists; and 3.) moral, cultural and political implications of the ecological imagination as underpinned by current ecological science. We identify a risk for feedback mechanisms to perpetuate a relatively homogeneous ecological aesthetic as a result of reciprocal influences between ecological science and society which may further promote inadvertent policy advocacy and stifle scientific innovation. We suggest ecological science would benefit from increased aesthetic literacy and reflection by broadening the ecological imagination and intentionally facilitating more diverse and equitable science to inform policy outcomes. Our argument should be of interest to philosophers of science, ecologists and those that draw on their outputs. (shrink)

This essay introduces, develops, and appraises the mitonuclear compatibility species concept (MCSC), identifying advantages and limitations with respect to alternative species concepts. While the consensus amongst most philosophers of biology is that (kind) essentialism about species is mistaken, and that species at most have relational essences, we appeal to the MCSC to defend thoroughgoing intrinsic essentialism. Namely, the doctrine that species have fully intrinsic essences and, thus, are natural kinds (of sorts), while allowing that species aren’t categorically distinct.

Establishes that being in partnership with Nature is our birthright, explores the roots of our separation, and demonstrates that we are designed to communicate with Nature. Offers six principles of co-creative partnership with Nature that serve as a map for guiding us back to our rightful place as a part of Nature. Explains that plants can guide us in living according to our true essential nature and details the steps of creating and facilitating a plant initiation with common plants.

Current workflows in academic ecology rarely allow an engagement of ecologists with philosophers, or with contemporary philosophical work. We argue that this is a missed opportunity for enriching ecological reasoning and practice, because many questions in ecology overlap with philosophical questions and with current topics in contemporary philosophy of science. One obstacle to a closer connection and collaboration between the fields is the limited awareness of scientists, including ecologists, of current philosophical questions, developments and ideas. In this article, we aim (...) to overcome this obstacle and trigger more collaborations between ecologists and philosophers. First, we provide an overview of philosophical research relevant to ecologists. Second, we use examples to demonstrate that many ecological questions have a philosophical dimension and point to related philosophical work. We elaborate on one example – the debate around the appropriate level of complexity of ecological models – to show in more detail how philosophy can enrich ecology. Finally, we provide suggestions for how to initiate collaborative projects involving both ecologists and philosophers. (shrink)

Niche construction is the process of organisms changing themselves or their environment—or their relationship with their environment—in ways that affect the evolutionary trajectory of their population. These evolutionary trajectory changes are traditionally understood to be triggered by changes in selection pressures. Niche construction thus necessarily involves organisms altering selection pressures. In this paper, we argue that changes in selection pressures is not the only way organisms can influence the evolutionary futures of their population. We propose that organisms can also affect (...) drift probabilities, and that such changes should be considered niche construction. Drift probabilities can be modulated by altering population size or by affecting driftability (individual variance in possible reproductive outcomes). We consider both and provide examples of how niche construction can stabilize, increase, or dampen drift probabilities. Finally, we revisit and broaden the traditional definition of niche construction. We hold that organismic activities that modify drift probabilities should count as niche construction, even if selection pressures remain unaltered. (shrink)

La question n'est plus : 'L'écologie, pour ou contre?' Le label vert a partout remplacé le label rouge (ou bleu ciel). La question est : 'Quelle écologie?' Or il y a là un problème, et même un 'problème à cornes,' selon la formule de Nietzsche : peut-on vraiment fonder l'écologie sur la Nature, dont la notion est si ambivalente? Elle n'a pas attendu l'homme pour produire cinq extinctions massives. Laissée à elle-même, elle éteindra tout, y compris les étoiles. Par ailleurs, (...) s'il faut bien sauvegarder les espèces dans leur admirable diversité, est-ce uniquement dans un but de conservation? La seule conservation eût été la finalité de la Nature que la vie n'aurait même pas dû commencer: une pierre dès le départ était plus performante. Et si le sens du vivant ne se trouvait pas tant dans la conservation que dans l'exposition de soi--et une exposition glorieuse--, jusqu'au sacrifice? Si la Madone était plus vraie que la Méduse? Fabrice Hadjadj nous offre ici une puissante méditation sur le vivant, l'interdépendance spirituelle de l'homme et des bêtes, la relation entre écologie et eschatologie. A travers une approche à la fois philosophique et biblique, il pense une tragédie heureuse, où il ne s'agit pas de donner pour durer, mais de durer pour donner encore.. En bref, il prend le taureau par les cornes."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Compassionate conservation is an ethical framework proposed to instill greater compassion for individual animals in conservation science and practice. In addition to highlighting compassion as a virtue, compassionate conservationists propose four ethical principles (first do no harm, individuals matter, inclusivity, and peaceful coexistence) to capture what it means to act compassionately in conservation. In this paper I argue for a revision of this framework. I begin by showing how compassionate conservationists also implicitly promote the virtue of respect, which better accounts (...) for the principles individuals matter and inclusivity, yet entails a further principle: respect for autonomy. I further suggest that, to reflect genuine compassion for wild animals, the principles first, do no harm and peaceful coexistence should be replaced by empathy, understanding, and minimize harm. In the second half of the paper, I discuss the implications of this revised framework. I argue that, due to the prevalence of suffering even in well-conserved ecosystems, compassion and respect motivate a more active management of natural environments in order to reduce the harms (natural and anthropogenic) that wild animals face. This reveals a greater need for discussions on how to balance the flourishing of wild animals against the preservation of biodiversity, as well as a need to identify new approaches to conservation which better promote both ends. (shrink)

This is a new edition of the classic examination of major philosophical, ethical, scientific and economic roots of environmental problems which examines the ways that radical ecologists can transform science and society in order to sustain life on this planet. It features a new Introduction from the author, a thorough updating of chapters, and two entirely new chapters on recent Global Movements and Globalization and the Environment.

Background: Microbiome biomarker discovery for patient diagnosis, prognosis, and risk evaluation is attracting broad interest. Selected groups of microbial features provide signatures that characterize host disease states such as cancer or cardio-metabolic diseases. Yet, the current predictive models stemming from machine learning still behave as black boxes and seldom generalize well. Their interpretation is challenging for physicians and biologists, which makes them difficult to trust and use routinely in the physician-patient decision-making process. Novel methods that provide interpretability and biological insight (...) are needed. Here, we introduce "predomics", an original machine learning approach inspired by microbial ecosystem interactions that is tailored for metagenomics data. It discovers accurate predictive signatures and provides unprecedented interpretability. The decision provided by the predictive model is based on a simple, yet powerful score computed by adding, subtracting, or dividing cumulative abundance of microbiome measurements. -/- Results: Tested on >100 datasets, we demonstrate that predomics models are simple and highly interpretable. Even with such simplicity, they are at least as accurate as state-of-the-art methods. The family of best models, discovered during the learning process, offers the ability to distil biological information and to decipher the predictability signatures of the studied condition. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we successfully predicted body corpulence and metabolic improvement after bariatric surgery using pre-surgery microbiome data. -/- Conclusions: Predomics is a new algorithm that helps in providing reliable and trustworthy diagnostic decisions in the microbiome field. Predomics is in accord with societal and legal requirements that plead for an explainable artificial intelligence approach in the medical field. (shrink)

gl. 1. Ėkofilosofii︠a︡ kak zhiznesokhrani︠a︡i︠u︡shchiĭ kulʹturnyĭ proekt -- gl. 2. Obrazy kulʹtury mira v istoriko-personologicheskom izmerenii -- gl. 3. Borʹba za mir v sovremennom mire : opyt, kont︠s︡ept︠s︡ii, modeli resheniĭ.

This chapter questions the way “sex” features in behavioral ecological research as a standard explanatory variable. Researchers often use sex to explain variation in a trait or phenomenon that they are studying. This practice is widespread, partly because sex is often easy to identify and often explains some variation, thus making it easier to discover and test other causal patterns of interest. Yet, sex also frequently fails to explain variation. Using a couple of recent examples, it is shown how the (...) pervasiveness of sex as an explanatory variable is partly due to the structure of scientific research, including the use of data from large longitudinal studies, and generalization from previous studies. Researchers should more carefully assess and justify the relevance of sex to each new study, to avoid overgeneralization and the perpetuation of assumptions about sexual difference and its importance in biology. (shrink)

This paper addresses a relatively new mode of ecological research: data synthesis studies. Data synthesis studies involve reusing data to create a general model as well as a reusable, aggregated dataset. Using a case from movement ecology, I analyse the trade-offs and strategies involved in data synthesis. Like theoretical ecological modelling, I find that synthesis studies involve a modelling trade-off between generality, precision and realism; they deal with this trade-off by adopting a pragmatic kludging strategy. I also identify an additional (...) trade-off, the synthesis trade-off, between making data easy to synthesise for a particular project, on the one hand, and facilitating data reuse for other projects, on the other. In response to this synthesis trade-off, researchers create flexible datasets that are relatively easy to use for particular projects and can be adjusted to suit some other purposes. The flexibility compromise is also found in broader open data efforts, making it a significant element in the future of data-intensive ecology. (shrink)

A philosopher's examination of how animal and plant life has shaped the history of our planet.

In this article, I examine the relation between Bateson and Guattari’s ecological thoughts: two thinkers whose ecological ideas at first sight have a lot in common. In order to show the difference between the thoughts of both thinkers, I will take my clue from Guattari’s remark that he parts ways with Bateson on the role of context. Explaining the role of context in both authors will allow me to show how Guattari’s thought implies both an endorsement and a critique of (...) cybernetics, and, specifically, promoting a machinic rather than cybernetic ecology. I will conclude by indicating what is at stake in this distinction. (shrink)

Though many of us have constructed our lives (or have had them constructed for us) such that it is easy to ignore or forget, human lives are entangled with other animals in many ways. Some interspecies relations would arguably exist in some form or another even under an ideal model of animal ethics. Others have an inescapably non-ideal character – these relationships exist as they do because things have gone wrong. In such circumstances we have reparative duties to animals we (...) have wronged because we have wronged them. Here I draw upon Christine Korsgaard’s “Fellow Creatures” (2018) and other nonideal approaches to animal ethics to critically assess the United States Fish & Wildlife Service practice of killing barred owls to protect endangered spotted owls in the old growth forest of the Pacific Northwest. This is a difficult case to be sure, but one that can benefit from non-ideal moral assessment in terms of interspecies relational repair. I argue for increased spotted owl habitat preservation and forest restoration as an alternative to barred owl removal that better aligns with both nonideal relational animal ethics and stated US Fish & Wildlife Service values. (shrink)

In the first half of the 2000s, one project to restore the former Danube floodplain was carried out in Belene, a marginal town on the Bulgarian Danube. The aim of this article is to record the practices that were already in place before the interventions on the Danube, as part of a heterogeneous local knowledge that had an alternative vision to the scientific knowledge of experts involved in the restoration project. The data comes from qualitative interviews with locals and experts (...) implicated in this project, as well as ethnographic observations from the fieldwork I carried out in 2013–2014, 2020 and 2022. The conclusion is that without attempting to replace the scientific knowledge, the locals aim to impose, through their local knowledge, a sort of slow ecology that eases the pace of the restoration of the former Danube floodplains. (shrink)

We are currently in the middle of the transformation from Martin Heidegger’s modern society to a society based on digital technology. In the developing digital society, humans in their current state of ‘Being’ are increasingly surrounded by systems that are networked and run based on algorithms, software, and data. These interconnected systems function, communicate, and interact in networks and driven by these algorithms, software, and data, which give them the ability to connect, calculate, and reveal. Jointly, these systems thus create (...) a new and actual reality based on their mathematical and scientific background. In the present-day digital society, humans’ actual ‘state of Being’ is increasingly framed by what the digital technology reveals to us and enables. The transition to this new digital reality conjures up more and more questions as to whether we as humans sufficiently understand the essence of digital technology and whether we as humanity have sufficient knowledge and insight to be able to analyze and fathom the essence of the new digital ecology around us. In this article, I will use Heideggerian phenomenology as a philosophy to create a framework that will allow us to, based on phenomenological research into our current ‘Dasein’ or ‘being there’, gain deeper insight into the ‘Being’ of digital technology and the ensuing development of a digital reality for humanity as a whole. (shrink)

This article charts a path between those who champion the culture concept and those who think it dangerous. This path navigates between two positions: realists who adopt realist conceptions of both the culture concept and the category of cultural groups, and fictionalists who see such efforts as just creative and fictional extrapolation. Developing the fictionalist position, I suggest it overstates the case against realism: there is plenty of room for realist positions that produce well-grounded empirical studies of cultural groups. Nonetheless, (...) I stress the importance of one element of the fictionalist critique: that the choice of ontology can lead to downstream harm. Developing an extended case study around the work of the anthropologist Julian Steward, I show how ontological decision making is an important element of contemporary scientific and policymaking work. I conclude by arguing that greater attention should be paid both to the processes by which ontologies are adopted and the potential consequences that may result. (shrink)

Founded on the premise that all living beings and systems are subjects in their own right, the Intersubjective Ecology Lab (IEL) is a collaborative effort at innovative, creative and experimental ways of reviving or arriving at socio-ecological knowledges and relationships that can help us reimagine our present and future beyond the so-called era of ‘the Anthropocene’ by supporting ecosystemic well-being on a local and planetary scale. During the Highland Gathering 2023, we hosted various sessions; from a philosophical dialogue on decolonizing (...) our relations with, and the meanings of ‘nature’, to a workshop on participatory improvisation theatre as a tool for embodied storytelling and imaginative learning from a ‘more-than-humane’ world, in collaboration with experimental philosopher and artist Jonathon Keats’ bestiaries project. It also included discussions on ethics towards an Atlas of Indigenous Ecological Knowledges in collaboration with the Ekologos Global Environmental Humanities Project, which served as preparations for a collaborative fieldwork in which we audio-visually documented Naga oral literatures: place-based stories and songs of belonging in a more-than-human world. (shrink)

This paper examines one aspect of the legacy of the Value-Free Ideal in conservation science: the view that measurements and metrics are value-free epistemic tools detached from ideological, ethical, social, and, generally, non-epistemic considerations. Contrary to this view, I will argue that traditional measurement practices entrenched in conservation are in fact permeated with non-epistemic values. I challenge the received view by revealing three non-epistemic assumptions underlying traditional metrics: (1) a human-environment demarcation, (2) the desirability of a people-free landscape, and (3) (...) the exclusion of cultural diversity from biodiversity. I also draw a connection between arguments for retaining traditional metrics to “scientific colonialism,” exemplified by a fortress conservation model. I conclude by advocating for abandoning the myth of the intrinsic value-freedom of measurement practices and embracing metrics aligned with societal and scientific goals. (shrink)

The current economic and societal production system gives money a magnified importance, overlooking other essential flows necessary for human survival and existence. It focuses on monetary indicators like profits, dividends, and GDPs to evaluate organizational production, while often disregarding outputs that harm the biosphere. Money is treated as the constitutive being (ousia) and attributed undemonstrated explanatory properties. Intangible flow theory helps eliminate this metaphysical status of money by recognizing that monetary flows are just one of many necessary flows for human (...) survival and existence. Organizations deliver product-flows that require input-flows from and send output-flows back to the encompassing biosphere, whether they explicitly engage in environmentally friendly activities or not. Therefore, every organization is an ecological entity because it has a relationship with the biosphere, which participates in the manner through which humans integrate into their surrounding environment and relate to other living beings. Eliminating the metaphysical status of money integrates every organization in the biosphere, making organizations accountable for environmental harm caused by their activities. This can be achieved by deconstructing the metaphysical status of money in business models. (shrink)

Change is the fundamental idea of evolution. Explaining the extraordinary biological change we see written in the history of genomes and fossil beds is the primary occupation of the evolutionary biologist. Yet it is a surprising fact that for the majority of evolutionary research, we have rarely studied how evolution typically unfolds in nature, in changing ecological environments, over space and time. While ecology played a major role in the eventual acceptance of the population genetic viewpoint of evolution in the (...) synthetic era (circa 1918-1956), it held a lesser role in the development of evolutionary theory until the 1980s, when we began to systematically study the evolutionary dynamics of natural populations in space and time. As a result, early evolutionary theory was initially constructed in an abstract vacuum that was unrepresentative of evolution in nature. The subtle synthesis between ecology with evolutionary biology (eco-evo synthesis) over the past 40 years has progressed our knowledge of natural selection dynamics as they are found in nature, thus revealing how natural selection varies in strength, direction, form, and, more surprisingly, level of biological organization. Natural selection can no longer be reduced to lower levels of biological organization (i.e., individuals, selfish genes) over shorter timescales but should be expanded to include adaptation at higher levels and over longer timescales. Long-term and/or emergent evolutionary phenomena, such as multilevel selection or evolvability, have thus become tenable concepts within an evolutionary biology that embraces ecology and spatiotemporal change. Evolutionary biology is currently suspended at an intermediate stage of scientific progress that calls for the organization of all the recent knowledge revealed by the eco-evo synthesis into a coherent and unified theoretical framework. This is where philosophers of biology can be of particular use, acting as a bridge between the subdisciplines of biology and inventing new theoretical strategies to organize and accommodate the recent knowledge. Philosophers have recommended transitioning away from outdated philosophies that were originally derived from physics within the philosophical zeitgeist of logical positivism (i.e., monism, reductionism, and monocausation) and toward a distinct philosophy of biology that can capture the natural complexity of multifaceted biological systems within diverse ecosystems—one that embraces the emerging philosophies of pluralism, emergence, and multicausality. Therefore, I see recent advances in ecology, evolutionary biology, and the philosophy of biology as laying the groundwork for another major biological synthesis, what I refer to as the Second Synthesis because, in many respects, it is analogous to the aims and outcomes of the first major biological synthesis (but is notably distinct from the inorganic and contrived progressive movement known as the extended evolutionary synthesis). With the general development of a distinctive philosophy of science, biology has rightfully emerged as an autonomous science. Thus, while the first synthesis legitimized biology, the Second Synthesis autonomized biology and afforded biology its own philosophy, allowing biology to finally realize its full scientific potential. (shrink)

Environmental theory and practice can benefit greatly from Emmanuel Levinas’ non-ontological philosophy of the Other in order to address the current global environmental crisis. From this viewpoint, this article focuses on 2 major positions within deep ecology. We discuss the significance of transitioning from one of them, which represents biocentric responsibility, to the other, which seeks to achieve environmental justice by challenging the hegemony of institutionalised environmentalism. In Levinasian terms, this is represented by moving from the anarchic realm of ethics (...) (face-to-face) to the totalising realm of politics (humanity), where the naked face of the Other becomes visible in the presence of a Third, and decision-making and concrete disputes resolution becomes necessary. Within this framework, historical and current inequalities compel the global North to degrow in order to allow the Others to weather the consequences of resource overconsumption and inequality. (shrink)

This book reengineers the conceptual relationship between nature and politics by crafting the terms of a new philosophy of nature and exploring its consequences for political thought. These consequences include major theoretical reformulations of some indispensable political concepts, including freedom, obligation, and the subject.

Both landscape and aesthetics are all too often considered disengaged categories associated with leisure and contemplation. This book establishes landscape as a key concept in contemporary thought and rethinks aesthetics in political and activist terms. In order to do so, it challenges the dualism of "the environment" as the space inhabited by humans and the province of the natural sciences about which philosophy has little to say. (This separation is evident even in the name of the recent field of environmental (...) humanities.) In a holistic view, landscapes are at the intersection of environment and human, place and people, and nature and culture, and aesthetics provide an immersive and engaged approach to them. Landscapes are ways of being in the world and aesthetics practical means of inhabiting them. Utilizing a pragmatist, antiessentialist lens, Alberto L. Siani characterizes landscapes (as opposed to environments and territories) as concrete, experienced habitats, performative ways of making sense of the world, while aesthetics (following Dewey) identify values and ordering criteria that permeate them. He addresses issues such as temporality, environmentalism, justice, education, and interdisciplinarity within this framework and in conversation with scientific positions. A coda gives three phenomenological accounts of intensely experienced and inhabited landscapes. (shrink)

This study investigates “dark ecology” – an ecological theory formulated by Timothy Morton, based on an object-oriented ontology and claimed to offer a new perspective on how humans can and should coexist with other “objects” in the world in a better, less hostile way. Dark ecology is a critique of both an anthropocentric and a biocentric worldview, aiming to erase the dichotomy between human/nature and subject/object. This essay performs an internal critique of dark ecology, analyzing and interpreting Morton’s books Dark (...) Ecology (2016) and Being Ecological (2018) through the lens of two central concepts – “responsibility” and “agency” in order to extract the premises of importance to the theory. These premises are then presented in Aristotelian syllogisms, based on which the validity of dark ecology is evaluated. The aim of the essay is to find an answer to the question as to whether dark ecology is logically coherent and consistent – and thus can really be seen as a fruitful perspective on how humankind should act in relation to the environment or not. The result from this investigation is that dark ecology is an invalid theory since it suffers from both incoherence and inconsistency. Based on this, it is concluded that dark ecology fails to achieve what it is presented to do. The answer to the research question of this essay, “Is dark ecology a theory that, if applied, leads to a change in humans’ relationship with the biosphere for the better?” is therefore “no”. (shrink)

Despite the ‘embodied’ turn that gesture studies have been taking, the extent to which the body actually contributes to the realization of thought remains questionable. Due, in large part, to the preoccupation of ‘embodied cognitivism’ with co-verbal gestures, the material world and the gestures engaging it are usually left out of discussion. That said, there is a small but growing corpus of literature on the cognitive effects of gesture that seeks to account for the performative role of the body, as (...) well as the scaffolding function of the physical world. The purpose of this book chapter is to outline the arguments presented by the main representatives of what we loosely call here ‘ecological’ approaches. Our goal for doing so is two-fold: i) to highlight the important insights gained about gesture through an ecological lens, and ii) to identify promising lines of inquiry for future research. What we identify as an approach suitably geared towards studying gesture, and especially its creative variety, is a theoretical framework grounded on the combination of Material Engagement Theory and Peircean semiotics. (shrink)

The niche has been central to ecology for most of the discipline’s history, yet there have been few attempts by philosophers to work out the ontology of the niche. A challenge is that there is a plurality of seemingly inconsistent definitions of the niche in ecology. This paper characterizes the population-level ecological niche by distinguishing among niche concepts, niche models, and the niche as a phenomenon. I argue that 'niche concepts' should be interpreted as theoretical frameworks or modelling strategies. I (...) also argue that there is a unified niche phenomenon underlying the seemingly heterogeneous models and definitions. The plurality of niche concepts in ecology should be seen as an expected consequence of the nature of modelling complex systems. (shrink)

One of the critical challenges of our contemporary world is rethinking temporality to face the global catastrophe of the Anthropocene. Recent theories in social sciences and philosophy envision a new conceptualization of our biosphere in which human and non-human life forms, inert objects, and technological devices are entangled. However, these approaches present two major problems: a) they affirm that organic and inorganic processes are ontologically symmetrical and have the same type of agency; and b) they consider that technicity on planet (...) Earth emerges in the hominization process. In this work, we will develop a genealogy of our biosphere that proposes an ecological and untimely alternative: life, from its earliest beginning, is a technical phenomenon that changes the face of the universe. (shrink)

This is a book of superlatives: the most comprehensive, most detailed, most ambitious, simply the best thing ever written in any language on the Marx–Spinoza connection in the long nineteenth centu...