Towards a Post-Phenomenology of Life: Castoriadis' Naturphilosophie

• Main Author: Suzi Adams
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cosmos and History Publishing Co-op. 2008-10-01
• Series: Cosmos and History : the Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
• Subjects: Ontology; Phenomenology; Nature; Life; Castoriadis; Merleau-Ponty
• Online Access: http://www.cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/108

p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 150%" class="MsoNormal"spanfont face="Times New Roman" size="3"The present paper situates Castoriadisrsquo; later philosophy of nature as part of wider debates on the problematic of lsquo;lifersquo;, especially within French phenomenology.spannbsp; /spanThrough hermeneutical reconstruction, it argues that lsquo;lifersquo;, as understood by Castoriadis, means auto-poietic modes of being. Castoriadisrsquo; interpretation of auto-poiesis is specific; it refers to self-moving and self-creating modes of being in the radical sense of ontological creation of form. In considering the German distinction made in phenomenological discussions between lsquo;lifersquo; as lsquo;being aliversquo; (emleben/em), and lsquo;lifersquo; as lsquo;experience of somethingrsquo; or as lsquo;existencersquo; (emerleben/em), the paper contends that Castoriadisrsquo; contribution is twofold. First, lsquo;lifersquo; in the broad sense is extended to all regions of being, that is, to include physical nature. Second, the lsquo;subjective instancersquo; of life (as emerleben/em) is instaurated with the living being. In Castoriadisrsquo; thought, however, this is centrally connected with the co-creationspannbsp; /spanof lsquo;the worldrsquo; as a horizon of proto-meaning on the one hand, and the imagination on the other. Finally, in that Castoriadisrsquo; ontology of nature puts into question the modern scientific view of the world ndash; and its underlying metaphysics ndash;spannbsp; /spanthe paper concludes that Castoriadisrsquo; later emNaturphilosophie/em is to be understood as part of the project of autonomy. /font/span/pspanfont face="Times New Roman" size="3"nbsp;/font/span