Humans and Their Environment, Beyond the Nature/Culture Opposition

The modern concept of nature appeared during the XVIIth Century: nature as a mechanical object to be submitted to the reason of man. A long tradition refers to the modern concept of nature to the Greek phusis. Actually, phusis refers to a dynamic process, and it engages in criticizing the modern paradigm of nature as opposed to culture. As it is, the principle of domination and of the exploitation by man of what we consider as nature is at the heart of the ideological, economic and financial model imposed by neoliberal capitalism. Based on growth, this model shapes and destroys the communities of humans as well as the environment on which they rely and from which they live. The climatic urgency, as well as the limited capacity of resources of the earth, require a transition towards an ecosocialism for another world. The anthropological confrontation with the Greek phusis invites us to a break with capitalism based on a large and rash use of technologies and aiming just the financial profit. The result is a destroying productivism. Instead, we have to take into account, in their complexity, the interactions between the societies of the men, their technical practices and their environment. The survival of the ones and of the others are at stake. In sum, nature is culture. Preface to the English Edition. 3 Introduction. 9 Between Nature and Culture. 15 I. Humans and Their Milieu in Ancient Greece. 19 II. From the Enlightenment Philosophers to Modern Anthropologists 37 III. Beyond Anthropological Determinisms: Permeabilities 47 IV. The Human Being and its Environment: Interactive Relationships 57 V. For an Ecosocialist Understanding of Humans and their Milieu. 65