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Englische Sprachkenntnisse, Bereitschaft zur Übernahme eines Referates

This course will provide an introduction to various conceptions of nature within their historical contexts.

Since Heraclitus' famous aphorism “Nature likes to veil herself”, the conception of nature has undergone profound changes: from the powerful and dynamic phusis of Greek philosophy to the vulnerable ecosystem, from playful and unpredictable lascivia to a mechanistic view of nature, from the Sublime to something ready to be dominated, from a primordeal force to the “second nature” in contemporary technology. The various conceptions of nature – such as Zeno's “artistic fi re”, “Mother Nature”, nature as living organism, nature as a hieroglyphic – problematize at the same time the porous boundaries between nature and culture, between nature and art, between the non-human and the human, between nature and technology. We will focus on seminal texts from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance Neo-Platonism, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, 20th century ecology and eco-criticism.
2–6 LP

1. Acquire basic knowledge about the development of concepts of nature and their impact.

2. Aquire knowledge about their historical contexts.

3. Develop an informed sensitivity towards the general impacts of metaphors employed to denote nature.

4. Achieve a critical awareness of the ethical, social and political dimensions of these concepts.