Geophilosophy: A Short Introduction to the “Poetic” Philosophy of Nature

Abstract

This article explores the concept of geophilosophy and the meaning of the earth inherent in the project designated by it. The consideration proceeds from the hypothesis of the existence of an idea of nature that acts as an alternative to the dominant classical modern concept (“natura”). This alternative is found in the poetic ontologies of J. Deleuze and M. Heidegger, as well as in the works of their predecessors, such as F. Nietzsche and the German romanticists (F. Schelling, Novalis, etc.). While the classical modern European idea of nature can be associated with the concept of the Universe, indicating representation and objectivity, the alternative “poetic” idea is embodied in the concept of the Earth, implying immediacy and “ungrounding”, i.e. grounding not in a subject or an object, but in the groundless. These are fundamentally different interpretations of nature, from which various anthropological and philosophical-political strategies stem. For this reason, it can be argued that geophilosophy, introduced by J. Deleuze and F. Guattari and picked up by many modern authors, such as I.H. Grant, is a project of a new – “poetic” – philosophy of nature. These conclusions allow us to deeper understand the ontological foundations of projects related to such modern trends as speculative realism, new materialism, inhumanism and posthumanism. Without a clear formulation of the question of the interpretation of nature, it is impossible to think of the ontological turn implied by these philosophical movements and their allies in the social disciplines. In addition, this paper expands the conceptual apparatus used in the historical and philosophical consideration of the postromantic European thought by allowing us to make connections unapparent to the existing vocabulary through the conceptualized notions of the earth and the poetic.