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Evolutionary Ontology Reclaiming the Value of Nature by Transforming Culture VIBS Volume 195 Robert Ginsberg Founding Editor Leonidas Donskis Executive Editor Associate Editors G. John M. Abbarno George Allan Gerhold K. Becker Raymond Angelo Belliotti Kenneth A. Bryson C. Stephen Byrum Harvey Cormier Robert A. Delfino Rem B. Edwards Malcolm D. Evans Daniel B. Gallagher Andrew Fitz-Gibbon Francesc Forn i Argimon William Gay Dane R. Gordon J. Everet Green Heta Aleksandra Gylling Matti Häyry Steven V. Hicks Richard T. Hull Michael Krausz Mark Letteri Vincent L. Luizzi Adrianne McEvoy Alan Milchman Peter A. Redpath Alan Rosenberg Arleen L. F. Salles John R. Shook Eddy Souffrant ˇ Tuija Takala Emil Višňovský Anne Waters John R. Welch Thomas Woods a volume in Central-European Value Studies CEVS Emil Višňovský, Editor Evolutionary Ontology Reclaiming the Value of Nature by Transforming Culture Josef šmajs Amsterdam - New York, NY 2008 Cover image: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Cover Design: Studio Pollmann The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-2448-9 ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2008 Printed in the Netherlands Central-European Value Studies (CEVS) Edited by Emil Višňovský , Slovak Academy of Sciences Affiliate Editors Jaap van Brakel, University of Louvain, Eckhard Herych, University of Mainz. Assistant Editors Arnold Burms (Belgium), Herman Parret (Belgium), B.A.C. Saunders (Belgium), Frans De Wachter (Belgium), Anindita Balslev (Denmark), LarsHenrik Schmidt (Denmark), Dieter Birnbacher (Germany), Stephan Grätzel (Germany), Thomas Seebohm (Germany), Olaf Wiegand (Germany), Alex Burri (Switzerland), Henri Lauener (Switzerland). Other titles in CEVS Josef Seifert: What is Life?: The Originality, Irreducibility, and Value of Life. 1997. VIBS 51 Kathleen J. Wininger: Nietzsche's Reclamation of Philosophy. 1997. VIBS 54 Caroline Joan (Kay) S. Picart: Thomas Mann and Friedrich Nietzsche: Eroticism, Death, Music, and Laughter. 1999. VIBS 85 CONTENTS Editorial Foreword by Emil Višňovský ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction From Intellectual Consolation to the Concept of Biophilous Culture 1 PART I Traditional and Evolutionary Ontology 15 One Problems of Traditional Ontology 1. Ontology as a Theory of Being 2. Ontology as Epistemology 3. Critical Ontology of N. Hartmann 17 17 28 44 Two Evolutionary Ontology 1. Two Ontic Orders 2. Orderliness 3. Roots of Evolutionary Ontology 57 57 71 84 PART II Ontology of Nature 101 Three Terrestrial Nature 1. Natural Evolution 2. Natural Information 3. Ontology of Nature 103 103 114 127 PART III Ontology of Culture 139 Four Anti-Natural Culture 1. Culture as a System with Internal Information 2. Two Ways of Constituting Culture 3. The Anti-Natural Pattern of Culture 141 142 151 159 Five Search for the Concept of Biophilous Culture 1. Genesis and Structure of Sociocultural Information 2. Ontic Role of Biophilous Sociocultural Information 3. Problems of Adopting the Biophilous Culture Concept 169 170 176 190 Contents viii Appendix A Lease on Planet Earth 197 Works Cited 201 About the author 207 Index 209 EDITORIAL Foreword It has become the exception, rather than the rule, that philosophers take care of the fate of this world, notably of the planet Earth and its inhabitant