Veranstaltungskalender

This workshop investigates natural beauty’s potential eudaimonic meaning, that is, in which ways its experience can contribute to human flourishing. In doing so, the workshop highlights the significance of aesthetics in the field of environmental philosophy and nature conservation.

Consider the following examples. Encountering the diversity of other living beings and inanimate natural entities can be invigorating and inspire multiple reflections on one’s way of living. Think of cases as diverse as an old gnarled tree, embodying endurance, a flying bird, expressing freedom, or the flow of water, symbolizing strength and adaptability. Furthermore, many natural entities sensuously manifest the inseparability of life and transience. In presenting transience as a necessity, they can evoke hope for change as well as acceptance and consolation in the face of finitude. Think of ephemeral spring blossoms or falling autumn leaves. Moreover, dwelling on landscapes, consisting of a diversity of interconnected entities, can make one realize to be part of it all, to feel at home in the world, and not to walk the Earth as stranger. In some cases, typically sublime environments which embody the deep history of this shared world and the powers that run through it, this feeling can be accompanied by a sense of awe and humble reflections on our place in it. Finally, the varieties of natural entities – reaching from tiny beetles to the infinite starry sky – can invite existential wonder and the realization that being is a mystery and life a gift.

Though many people might agree with the claim that natural beauty’s complete destruction or unavailability would be an existential loss for humanity, few authors in philosophy have addressed natural beauty’s meaning for human flourishing. Taking seriously the significance of beauty, as it is currently investigated in the emerging subfield of existential aesthetics, the workshop’s goal is to improve our understanding of natural beauty’s eudaimonic potential and its irreplaceability. In doing so, the workshop highlights environmental aesthetics’ relevance in the field of environmental philosophy and nature conservation.