Conatus, the Will to Persist: An Introduction

The papers collected in this issue address a variety of aspects of the concept of conatus ranging from the explorations of its roots in early ancient Greek thought to its application on modern theories of democratic education. The conatus is a special relation between the parts of a monad and their subparts and the subparts of the subparts to infinity, which ensures that each part and subpart is a part of this monad and not of any other. As a fundamental trait of monadic existence, the conatus is manifested in a multiplicity of facets that sustain the persistence of any real existence. It is thus obvious that there is still a vast field of such manifestations of conatus that awaits philosophical exploration, especially in the realms of Social Ontology and of the Philosophy of Nature.

Nature’s Perfection: Aristotle and Descartes on Motion and Purpose

Descartes holds that, insofar as nature is a purposeless, unthinking, extended substance, there could be no final causes in physics. Descartes’ derivation of his three laws of motion from the perfections of God thus underwrites a rejection of Aristotle’s conception of natural self-motion and teleology. Aristotle derived his conception of the purposeful action of sublunar creatures from his notion that superlunar bodies are perfect, eternal, living beings, via the thesis that circular motion is more complete or perfect than rectilinear motion. Descartes’ reduction of circular motion to rectilinear motion, achieved through his theological foundation of the laws of motion, thus marks a crucial break from Aristotle’s philosophy of nature. This paper argues that the shift from the Aristotelian conception of nature as self-moving and teleological to the Cartesian conception of nature as purposeless and inert, is not an empirical discovery but is rooted in differing conceptions of where perfection lies in nature.

A Metafisica da Vontade e as Ciências: um estudo em Schopenhauer sobre a natureza humana

O objetivo deste trabalho consiste em tentar explicitar uma possível relação entre o argumento do filósofo Arthur Schopenhauer acerca da natureza humana, à luz de sua metafísica da vontade, e aspectos das ciências empíricas, tomadas aqui enquanto base para uma filosofia imanente da natureza. Para tanto, algumas obras importantes foram adotadas como base deste estudo, tais como: O Mundo como Vontade e Representação e Sobre Vontade na Natureza. Inicialmente, procurou-se aproximar alguns elementos de sua formação científica e investigar como o autor utiliza os recursos das ciências da vida em sua metafísica, transferindo seus argumentos filosóficos para áreas de estudo como a fisiologia. Em seguida pretendeu-se com explorar uma espécie de argumento naturalista, à medida que adentra o panorama observacional do filósofo. O objetivo não é estabelecer uma defesa desta visão, mas compreender a dinâmica desta intelecção sobre natureza, o que permitirá examinar dimensões tanto do ponto de vista naturalista quanto existencial, intimamente relacionadas com a sujeição do homem a um princípio volitivo.Palavras-chave: Schopenhauer. Ciências. Metafísica. Natureza Humana. The Metaphysics of Will and The Sciences: a study in Schopenhauer on human natureABSTRACTThe objective of this paper is to try to explain a possible relationship between the argument of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer about human nature, in the light of his metaphysics of will, and aspects of the empirical sciences, taken here as the basis for an immanent philosophy of nature. Therefore, some important works were adopted as the basis for this study, such as: The World as Will and Representation and About Will in Nature. Initially, an attempt was made to bring together some elements of his scientific training and investigate how the author uses the resources of life sciences in his metaphysics, transferring his philosophical arguments to areas of study such as physiology. Then, it was intended to explore a kind of naturalist argument, as it enters the observational panorama of the philosopher. The objective is not to establish a defense of this vision, but to understand the dynamics of this understanding of nature, which will allow us to examine dimensions both from a naturalistic and an existential point of view, closely related to the subjection of man to a volitional principle.Keywords: Schopenhauer. Science. Metaphysics. Human Nature.

Sympoietic Art Practice in Co-expressive Re-worlding with Hegel’s “Vegetal Subject”

“Sympoietic art practice”, construed as co-creative making-together-with plants, contributes to posthumanist discourse by forming cross-species partnerships which re-configure exploitative relations with plants. The posthumanist commitment of sympoietic practice to live equitably with the more-than-human world is inherently opposed to the tradition of anthropocentrism widely associated with Hegel’s idealization of reason and culture. But when Hegelian philosophy comingles with the radically different assumptions of sympoietic art practice in this exploratory paper, a co-expressive “worlding with plants” emerges. A transformative re-reading of Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature reveals that the English translators have smoothed away the vibrant concept of a “vegetal subject” explicitly used by Hegel in the original German. The resulting interpretive fissure makes space for a creative scrutiny of human exceptionalism, humanist and posthumanist conceptions of plant subjectivity and human-plant relations. Our transdisciplinary article concludes with a performative knitting together and composting of shreds of Hegelian text with vibrantly participative strands of living couch grass.

The Problem of Consciousness and its Origin in Vasily Sesemann’s Manuscripts

The purpose of this article is to analyse the concept of consciousness in Vasily Sesemann’s manuscripts. Sesemann studied consciousness, describing it as an intentional experience and rejecting its naturalistic explanations. Sesemann revealed the irreducibility of life to physiological or chemical processes and at the same time rejected the dualistic opposition of spirit and matter, soul and body. In the manuscript text “Self-knowledge, self-consciousness and objectification” the philosopher explores the relationship of consciousness with self-consciousness and the subconscious, as well as various forms of objectification of consciousness. This manuscript can be attributed to a group of manuscript texts that discuss the origin of consciousness and the metaphysical relationship between matter and spirit. In the article, I will first discuss the relationship between Sesemann’s concept of consciousness and the philosophy of nature. Second, I will examine how Sesemann understands the relationship between consciousness and self-consciousness and the objectifications of consciousness. Third, I will analyze how the philosopher understands emotional intuition and subconsciousness. I argue that Sesemann’s approach is phenomenological.

The Criminal Liability of Corporations as Crime Perpetrators

In terms of handling corporate crimes that culminate in "sentencing" or "giving punishment", corruption is referred to as a crime that has caused damage to life. However, this is not mentioned much in criminal law studies. In addition to sentencing, corporations that committed corruption must also return corporate assets to the state. This needs to be considered according to the philosophy of nature aequum est neminem cum alterius detrimento et injuria fieri locupletiorem. This philosophy means that no one can enrich themselves at the expense and suffering of others. This philosophy changes the source of this doctrinal principle, namely crime does not pay or crime shall not pay into an expression of resistance to crime perpetrators so that they cannot enjoy the results of the crime they committed. The statement of the problem in this paper is how is the philosophy of sentencing corporations that are perpetrators of corruption? This research used secondary data through literature study in the form of laws and descriptive analysis. The imposition of a criminal fine creates implications and juridical problems for corporations that committed corruption. The recommendation of this paper is to build an ideal model of sentencing corporation based on justice.

Three Attitudes Towards Nature

In his introductions to the encyclopaedic Philosophy of Nature and to the Lectures on the Philosophy of Nature, Hegel distinguishes between three ‘attitudes’ (Verhaltensweisen, Einstellungen) towards nature—the theoretical, the practical and the philosophical attitude. According to him there is a certain ‘contradiction’ or tension between our theoretical attitude towards nature, which makes it an object of scientific inquiry, and the practical attitude that we assume as living rational beings who intervene in nature and shape it according to our purposes. This article focuses on how exactly to pinpoint that tension and on how it is resolved in what Hegel calls the ‘philosophical’ or ‘comprehending’ attitude towards nature.

Karoline von Günderrode (1780–1806)

This chapter presents three unpublished works by Karoline von Günderrode. In them, Günderrode discusses and assesses the moral philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling’s philosophy of nature, while also developing her own ethical account of the human relation to the earth in the essay “Idea of the Earth.” Widely regarded as her most important and radical contribution, “Idea of the Earth” distinguishes Günderrode among her contemporaries and places her in proximity to current environmental thought.