Naturalism

Summary

Dominique Pagani takes naturalism to be the thesis that nature, heredity or genes determine human beings, at the expense of history, culture and praxis1. In his view, cognitive science and neuroscience illustrate it today, as does a neo-Spinozism that neglects the historical dimension of the affects2. He contrasts heritage with heredity and faults naturalism for seeing only the relation to the thing: one does not eat merely to relieve hunger, one eats at table with fellow diners3. He links it to ecologism, which he distinguishes from ecology: the idea of a natural balance there is religious in origin, and this discourse makes man a devil and nature a divinity. He holds it to be contrary to Hegel and to Marxism, Marx having broken with the naturalism of his youth4. He sees in it an anti-humanism, which is also the core of Nazi ideology5. He specifies that he does not attack nature itself, that materialism and naturalism are not the same thing, and that he defends the environment against nature.

1. 1#4 Harnessed to confinitude11 Apr 2020 · 20:06
2. 2Q for Quality31 Dec 2014 · 6:31
3. 3"On a triangle of madness at the heart of modern consciousness"19 Dec 2014 · 4:40
4. 4H for Hegel22 Dec 2014 · 4:06
5. 5Naturalist ideology: answers to questions25 Jul 2025 · 1:09:26

Summary produced automatically from 36 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.