Roman Pasca: Nature, Ahistoricity, and Environmental Ethics

Roman Pasca: Nature, Ahistoricity, and Environmental Ethics
Part of the Panel: "Watsuji and the Environment"
6th Annual Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy "(Counter)influences"

Abstact:
In Shizen shin’eidō (“The True Way of the Functioning of Nature”), Andō Shōeki (1703-1762) described a vision of the universe in which Nature (shizen) is an entity sufficient in itself, complete in its isness, all-encompassing and inclusive. For Shōeki, shizen no yo (“the World of Nature”) is the unspoiled, primordial realm where all manifestations of life coexist in a pristine, quintessential state. Opposed to this realm is the shihōsei (“the World of the Private Law”), which represents human society, warped by an antagonism with the “True Way” because of the existence of self-serving, man-made laws. For Shōeki, the whole world is a dynamic continuum in which Heaven and Earth do exist separately, but as the two sides of the same coin, i.e. as Heaven-and Earth combined together in a totality created and governed by a flow of energies that circulate constantly, uninterrupted and eternal. This, for him, is the realm of Nature, and all forms of existence can only be immanent to this realm, deeply embedded within it. Therefore, since Nature is beginningless and endless, notions such as “time” or “history” seem to be completely irrelevant, as nothing can exist outside Nature. In my presentation, I start from this idea of “denial / annihilation of history” and examine the concept of time in Shōeki’s philosophy, focusing on its role in the ontology and epistemological status of the human being, while also pondering on its relevance for environmental ethics.

Roman Paşca is an assistant professor at the Department of Japanese Philosophy at
Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Letters. His research focuses on the
development of the concept of “nature” in premodern Japanese philosophy. He is
also working on the relation between nature and self within the framework of
environmental ethics, and on “deep ecology” in Japanese philosophy.

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