Mastery of nature

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The lever of Archimedes , Mechanics' Magazine 1824

Mastery of nature is an idea in particular from the more recent occidental intellectual history . It reflects the accumulation of knowledge, which has grown rapidly in human history, about properties and laws of nature, which increasingly allow natural processes, conditions and living beings to be changed or influenced with the help of technology in the broadest sense. Mastery of nature is part of the self-image of modern man.

Aspects of the history of ideas

Even magical practices, which continue to have an effect in Christianity, are based on their self-image on the influence of nature spirits, gods or saints in order to suit people and induce certain behavior that is useful for people or meets their demands.

The idea of ​​mastering nature was largely alien to the self-image in antiquity . The influential Aristotle , for example, sees humans more in the role of imitators, at best in that of the perfecter of nature. Similarly, mechanics was seen as a trick, not an application or use of natural laws.

The idea of ​​mastering nature came to its first bloom in modern philosophy , for example with Descartes : People have the potential to become the "rulers and owners of nature" (maîtres et possesseurs de la nature) and Bacon : "Knowledge is power" . A departure from the concept of being outwitted had already emerged in the 16th century, for example in Guidobaldo del Monte .

It was only after the socialization of the means of production that Marx and Engels saw man as “conscious, real masters of nature because and in that they become masters of their own socialization”. However, Engels already warned: “Let us not flatter ourselves too much with our human victories over nature. For each such victory, she takes revenge on us. In the first place, each has the consequences that we are expecting, but in the second and third line it has completely different, unforeseen effects that all too often cancel out those first consequences. "

interpretation

The modern idea of ​​controlling nature and its implementation have been interpreted differently. While some saw it as a secularization of the Dominium terrae idea of ​​the Old Testament, Hans Blumenberg interpreted it as a gesture of human self-assertion, for which the late medieval nominalists' concept of God (absolute omnipotence and freedom of God) paved the way. Man had to fight off an unpredictable and incomprehensible God and both the path to transcendence and to ancient ataraxia were blocked. Instead, he empowered himself and consciously wanted to tackle the creative use of nature. Max Weber pointed out that the increasing possibility of mastering nature with modern rationalization is connected with a disenchantment of the world .

criticism

It was widely criticized in many of the intellectual currents of the 20th century, which still have an impact today, such as Critical Theory , which saw in the capitalist-industrial complex a destructive and suppression-related perversion of human possibilities. In this interpretation, domination over nature has led to inhuman domination over human beings. In his work On the Critique of Instrumental Reason (English 1947; German 1967), Max Horkheimer establishes a connection between the suppression of (internal and external) nature and intra-human forms of domination and oppression; because control of nature man mastering with inclusive, applies in reverse: ". The man shares in the process of its emancipation the fate of his other world" The most detailed criticism of the domination of nature as the cause of the rule of man over man found together in Horkheimer with Theodor W Adorno wrote the Dialectic of Enlightenment . “What people want to learn from nature is to apply it in order to master it and people completely. Nothing else applies, ”it says. Traditionally, not only the woman to be ruled and the stranger to be subjugated fall into the sphere of the natural, which has to be mastered; the process of civilization also resulted in the unlimited "enslavement of the creature"; Since its rise, the human species has shown itself to the other species as "the most terrible destruction".

See also

literature

  • Theodor W. Adorno , Max Horkheimer : Dialectics of the Enlightenment .
  • Hans Blumenberg : The Legitimacy of Modern Times . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1966. See Hans Blumenberg: Secularization and self-assertion. Extended and revised new edition of "The Legitimacy of Modern Times", first and second part . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1974 and Hans Blumenberg: The process of theoretical curiosity. Extended and revised new edition of "The Legitimacy of the Modern Age", third part . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1973.
  • Hans Blumenberg: Intellectual history of technology. Edited from the estate by Alexander Schmitz. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-58533-7 (with CD: radio lecture by Hans Blumenberg: "The machines and progress. Thoughts on the intellectual history of technology." Broadcast by Hessischer Rundfunk on November 12, 1967 ).
  • Jürgen Mittelstraß : Modern Times and Enlightenment. Studies on the emergence of modern science and philosophy. de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1970, ISBN 3-11-001825-0 , (At the same time: Habil.-Schrift, Univ. Erlangen, Nuremberg).
  • Friedrich Rapp : Understanding of nature and mastery of nature. History of Philosophy Development and Current Context. Fink, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7705-1963-9 ( Critical Information 102).

Remarks

  1. ↑ The interpretation of cheating is not without controversy; see, for example, Marcus Popplow: New, useful and inventive. The idealization of technology in the early modern age , Münster 1998, p. 147 ff.
  2. ↑ Descartes, Discours de la méthode , VI, 2
  3. ^ Bacon, preface to the Novum Organum
  4. ↑ Friedrich Engels: Mr. Eugen Dühring's revolution in science (“Anti-Dühring”) , MEW vol. 20, p. 264.
  5. ↑ Ders .: Dialectics of Nature , ibid., P. 452.
  6. ↑ Hans Blumenberg: The legitimacy of the modern age . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1966.
  7. ↑ Max Horkheimer: On the Critique of Instrumental Reason , in: Collected Writings Volume 6: On the Critique of Instrumental Reason 'and' Notes 1949-1969 ', Frankfurt a. M. 1991, pp. 19-186, p. 106.
  8. ↑ Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno: Dialectic of Enlightenment. Philosophical Fragments , Frankfurt a. M. 1988, p. 10.
  9. ↑ Cf. Matthias Rude: Antispeciesism. The liberation of humans and animals in the animal rights movement and the left , Stuttgart 2013, p. 146.
  10. ↑ Dialectic of Enlightenment (see note 7), p. 10, p. 199.