International Cosmos Prize Memorial lecture

Th e m esological foundations of sustainability

MCWP itself (§ 1), and then, more at length, an

couldn't pretend that I didn't exist. (...) This taughtthat since the word mesology did not exist in English, thealternative paradigm, that of mesology(§2-6).

me that I was a substance whose whole essence orprogresses of the new science in the Anglosphere were

The MCWP is onto-logically founded on the principle

nature is simply to think, and which, in order to be,accomplished as ecology, and consequently were knownof decosmization, by means of abstracting our Being

doesn't need any place (qui, pour etre, n'a besoin

in French also as ecologie, not as mesologie.

from its milieu: 1. ontologically with dualism, and 2.

d'aucun lieu), nor depends on any material thing."

France, it was reborn in Germany, but in a new light andlogically with the law of excluded middle, bothby Augustin BERQUE

Abstract - The modern-classical Western paradigm

Now, while mesology vanished from the academia inhamounting, onto-logically, to the reign of Binarity (asc) Declaration, 訟 c. A.D., of Cyborg's deterrestration

with a new name, in the works of the Baltic-German

exemplarily(GRAY ed. 1995: 47)1 :naturalist Jakob von Uexkiill (1864-1944), one of theinstanced, nowadays, bythebinary"language" of our electronic devices).

founders of ethology, and the precursor of biosemiotics.

{MCWP), ontologicalりfounded on dualism and logically

The embodiment of this principle, which I shall call

"I thought it would be good to have a new concept, a

The new light brought forth by Uexkiill may beon the law of excluded middle, has entailed modernity and"the principle of Mount Horeb", can historically beconcept of persons who can free themselves from

qualified as an instance of hermeneutical phenomenology.

industrialization. It has come to a dead end not only insummarized in three stages : a) conceiving absolutethe constraints of the environment to the extent that

It consisted in considering living beings (in practice,biological terms (those of the Sixth Extinction), but also

Being, namely that of the God of monotheism, who isthey wished. And I coined this word cyborg.[ ...] The

mainly animals) no more as Maschinen(machines), but

morally by decomposing the social link, and aestheticallypurely transcendental since he is both subject andmain idea was to liberate man [ ... ] to give him theas Maschinisten(drivers, operators of a machine), thatby wreaking havoc in the landscape. In a word, the MCWP

predicate of himself, and correlatively depends on

bodily freedom to exist in other parts of the universe

is, no more as objects but as subjects; subjects who

has decosmized human existence.

For re-cosmizing

nothing but his own substance for existing; b) applying

without the constraints that having evolved on earth

interpreted the environmental datum in a way specificourselves, technical recipes will not suffice. We need tothe same principle to the human, as symbolized bymade him subject to."to their respective species, thus conferring these data afound anew, both ontologically and logically, our way

Descartes' cogito, first expression of the modern subject,of being and thinking. That is the aim of mesology

and correlatively of the modern object; c) implementing(Umweltlehre, fildogakuJ, which proposes a set of ontological

technically that same principle, in the form of Cyborg's

The French word "mesologie"(mesology) - from theinstead of studying a mechanism of stimulus-answer, asconcepts and logical principles enabling us to overcome thetrans- or posthumanism, and correlatively geoengineering.

Greek meson, "middle, mean", and logos, "discourse,

did behaviourism, had to penetrate that signification in

For want of place, I shall restrict this argument to thescience" - was created by physician Charles Robinorder to define it from the inside, that is, from the point

following three quotations (for more details, BERQUE(1821-1885), who presented it at the inaugural sessionof view of the concerned subjects.

2010, 2014 a) :of the Societe de biologie on June 7th, 1848, as a science

Thereby, Uexkiill introduced a founding distinctionof milieux (environments) (CANGUILHEM 1968 : 71).

between environment(Umgebung) and milieu(Umwelt).

a) Declaration, XIIlth c. B.C., of God's absolute substance

The first edition of the Petit Larousse, in 1906, defined it

Environment is a raw and universal datum, considered(BIBLE, Exodus, 3, 13-14) :as "Part of biology which deals with the relations ofin abstracto by the look from nowhere of modern

environments and organisms"(Partie de la biologie qui

science, and accordingly valid in principle as such fortraite des rapports des milieux et des organismes).

any living being; whereas milieu is a concrete and

MCWP.
Keywords - LOGIC, MESOLOGY, ONTOLOGY, PARADIGM,SUSTAINABILITY.
Summaヮ—§1. From Mount Horeb to transhumanismand geoengineering; §2. What is mesology ? ; §3. Fromparticular signification, and behaving according to that
§2. What is mesology?

signification(Bedeutung). This meant that the scientist,

imprint-matrix to seeing as; §4. From possibilism to the"Then Moses said to God,'Behold, I am going to thelogic of "as"; §5. Capsizing the logic of the subject intosons of Israel, and I will say to them,'The God of yourRobin was a direct disciple of Auguste Comte. He

singular reality, valid only from the point of view of thethat of the predicate will not suffice;§6. Overcoming thefathers has sent me to you.'Now they may say to me,

understood mesology as a positive science, the field of

being concerned, and dynamically coupled with the

MCWP with the mesa-logic of mesology.

'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?' God

which was extremely large, since it corresponded toconstitution of that being.

said to Moses, 'I am who I am'(KV;V KWうKV;V ehyehthat with which deal, to-day, ecology, physiology,

This amounted to establishing mesology as a scienceasher ehieh→ tyw Etµ 心ふv [I am the Being]→ sum

anthropology and sociology; too vast a field indeed for aof milieux(Umweltlehre), whereas ecology is the science§1. From Mount Horeb to transhumanism andqui sum); and He said,'Thus you shall say to the sons

single positive science; which explains why mesology,

of environment. Moreover, Umweltlehre is intimately

geoengineeringof Israel, "'I am" has sent me to you."'

after having prospered together with determinism incoupled with a study of signification(Bedeutungslehre,ththe XIX century, faded away until it disappeared fromThat the present course of our civilization is notsustainable is by now common knowledge; therefore, Ib) Declaration, XVIlth c. A.D., of the cogito's non-placenessshall not, here, recapitulate the various reasons we have

(DESCARTES 2008: 36-37; my translation) :to change that course, which was entailed by thedictionaries in the XXth century.

later called biosemiotics), whereas ecology is not2.
In 1934, Uexkiill gathered up his views in a small

The main reason for this decline was the blossoming

book, finely illustrated by his colleague Georg Kriszat,of ecology, which was born later - it is in 1866 that

Streifziige durch die Umwelten van Tieren und Menschen

Modern Classical Western Paradigm (hereafter MCWP).

"Then I looked carefully into what I was. I saw that

Haeckel introduced in German Okologie, which(Raids into the milieux of animals and humans)

Instead, I shall focus the problem on the ontological andwhile I could pretend that I had no body and thatpenetrated in French as ecologie in 1874 -, but the field(UEXKULL 1965).

logical - the onto-logical - grounds of, first, briefly, thethere was no world and no place for me to be in, I stillof which was better defined. A correlative reason was'Gray is here quoting Manfred Clynes, who invented the word Cyborg in 1960

At about the same time, in 1935, philosopher Watsuji'To-day, biosemiotics (Biosemiotika in Germa叫has become a part of ethology, not of
ecology (Okologie in German).

Tetsurが(1889-1960) published Fuda. This word fi1do

capitalism, industrialism…), have come to the point ofcovered with wheat fields, vineyards and olive groves.

elsewhere to that which is the contrary of a matrix,

風土， "wind-earth", means milieu in the sense of Umwelt

not only triggering off what is nowadays called the Sixth

From there, daily, came for them these earthly foods

namely an imprint(ekmageion, 50 c 1). The chora is both

The subtitle was Ningengakuteki kosatsu 人間学的考察，

Extinction of life on Earth, but, moreover, of breaking up

which enabled them to live. In such a world, no astu

an imprint and a matrix toward that which Plato calls"a study of human betweenness" (WATSUJI 1979). The

the social bond and playing havoc with the landscape; inwithout its chora!

genesis ytvi::mc; (origin, source, beginning, nativity,

matter is indeed about human milieux, not milieux inother words, of entailing a loss of cosmicity which may

Now, astu - the urban centre of the polis - is a word,

generation, production, creation), that is the process ofgeneral as in Uexkiill. Correlatively, Watsuji establishedwell be fatal for Humankind. This means that, contrary

the Indo-European root of which, WES, means "sojourn,becoming of beings in the sensible world (kosmos

a human mesology, fudoron 風士論 or fudogaku 風士学．

to that decosmization, in order to ensure sustainability,

stay''. This root is also found in the Sanskrit vasat (heaisthetos); beings who, in Plato's ontocosmology, are not

Whether he had heard of Uexkiill's Umweltlehre during

we have to recosmize, reconcretize, re-Earthbind humanstays) or vastu (place). In German, it gave Wesen (being,true Being, but only its reflection as images.

his stay in Germany (1927-1928), or rediscovered its

existence; and this is precisely the aim of mesology

nature, essence), war and gewesen (temporal forms ofThus both an imprint and a matrix, one thing and its

homologue on his own side as a practitioner of(BERQUE 2014 a, 2014 b; AUGENDRE et al. 2018).

sein, to be); in English, was and were (temporal forms ofcontrary, the chora has literally no identity. One cannot

to be). The astu, in short, and inasmuch as the matter

figure it. Plato acknowledges that this is "difficult toconcerned a Hellene as Plato, was by essence the abodebelieve" (mogis piston, 52 b 2), and that "when seeing it,

hermeneutical phenomenology, Watsuji's mesology was
founded on the same principles; namely, that a milieu§3. From imprint-matrix to seeing as

supposes the subjecthood (shutaisei 主体性） of the

The word "milieu", at least in French , has the twinof Being in the sensible world (one would say inwe dream" (oneiropoloumen blepontes, 52 b 3), but heconcerned people, and, correlatively, that milieu仰do)

and apparently contradictory meanings of both a centre

Castilian la estancia de/ ser, and in post-Heideggerian

insists that it exists: in the array (the kosmos Koaµoc;) of

is not the natural environment (shizen kankyo 自然環境）．

or focus and what surrounds this focus. It may be theder Aufenthalt von Sein in Seiendheit); nevertheless, that

Being, there is indeed, from the beginning and at the

Uexkiill and Watsuji are the two founding fathers ofcentre of a target or the middle of a road as well as theabode of Being could'nt concretely exist without thissame time, true Being, its projection as beings, and thecontemporary mesology, which I advocate in their wake.

environment of a fish, i.e. the water around it, the midst

nurturing milieu: the chora which surrounded the astu.

milieu where this projection is concretely accomplished,

Yet in my mind, rather than a discipline, which in aof which is the fish itself. This poses clearly a logicalThis context probably inspired Plato's words in thenamely the chora. The text says (52 d 2) : ov TE Kal xw

word would amount to a phenomenological ecology,

problem: how can the midst be also the surroundings, A

Timaeus. Now, as far as the chora is concerned, the leastpav Kal ytvi::mv dvm, Tpia TP⑳, Kal nplv oupavov YEVE

mesology should be considered as a general perspective,

be also non-A? How can it mean both one thing and its

one can say is that these words are unclear, and even

a0m, "there is Being, and milieu, and being, all three

outdating modern classic dualism, which, as it is known,

contrary?

contradictory; a contradiction which the text of thetriply, and which are born before the sky" (that is before

4

relies on an abstract and radical distinction between

One may notice, first, that when talking about the

Timaeus precisely does not overcome, and which will

the arranging of kosmos, which in the Timaeus iswhat pertains to the subject and what pertains to theenvironment ("milieu") of a fish, one considers here aseal the fate of the chora for the centuries to come in

identified with ouranos).

object. For mesology, reality, that of concrete milieux, is

set of objects - the fish and the other elements of theEuropean thought. In a word, until Heidegger's Dasein,

In terms of Aristotelian topos, on the other hand, suchneither properly objective, nor properly subjective, but

environment -, placed under the look from nowhere ofEuropean thought will foreclose it - forgetting, in sum,a problem of imprint/matrix does not arise. In the

trajective (BERQUE 1986, 2014 b, 2018 etc.). Thisscientific measure; and, second, that when talking about

the question "why does Being (Sein) need a place and a

Physics (IV), the topos is like an "immobile vase"concerns the natural sciences as well as the humanities.

the fish as the midst ("milieu") of its ambient world, we

milieu?" - and content itself with the clear definition(aggeion ametakineton, 212 a 15), which makes that theCompared with the MCWP, this is of course a shift ofhave here a subject - the fish - for which any other thingwhich Aristotle, on the contrary, has given about thething which occupies it, and which for its part is mobile,ontological order, but also of logical order. As we shallis defined in relation with its own existence. Both cases

notion of topos て61to<; in book IV of his Physics - namely

can change its place while keeping its own identity,see, mesology's mesa-logics, overcoming the abstract

are compossible and neither one is truer than the othera place dissociable from the being (Seiende) it contains

obviously distinct from that of the topos. This principle

dualities of dualism (subject/object, nature/culture,one, but they are contradictory.

(since it is not mobile, while this being is), whereas theis of course linked with Aristotelian logic, which is

chora is not dissociable from it.

a logic of the identity of the subject (hupokeimenon

assertion/negation, subject/predicate, etc.), overcomes

Such is the question: how can we overcome thisalso the law of excluded middle, and pertains to thecontradiction? How can the milieu of a fish be both

Now, if in the Timaeus this foreclosure is still not

unoKEiµi::vov), in other words a logic of the identity oftetralemma: beyond assertion (A is A) and negation (A isobjective and subjective? How can the inside be at theaccomplished, since Plato precisely questions about thesubstance (ousia o如ia). As a matter of fact, in the

not non-A), it acknowledges binegation (neither A norsame time the outside, and vice versa?

chora, his ontology, the principle of which is theEuropean way of thinking, following Aristotle, "substancenon-A) and biassertion (both A and non-A). Pertaining

The ancestor of this ambivalent notion of milieu (inself-identity of "true Being" (ontos on, i.e. the eidos or& accidents in metaphysics correspond to subject andto both ontology and logics, the new perspective which

the mesological sense of Umwelt and Judo) is probablyidea), excludes any logical capture of that notion ofpredicate in logic" (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, S th ed.:mesology brings forth is onto-logical.

the chora xwpa in Plato's Timaeus (BERQUE 2000, andchora, since it mysteriously escapes this principle of1287). Now, the chora, on its part, manifestly does not

The general meaning of mesology is that such aespecially 2012). The most general and concrete meaning

identity. It escapes it so thorougly that Plato fails topertain either to that logic nor to that ontology, since it

paradigm shift is necessary in a time when the abstraction

which this word might have in the Greek city-state, that isdefine it, contenting himself with metaphors; which

can be one thing and the contrary. In Aristotelian logic,

of modern dualism, together with the law of excluded

for the citizens of a polis n6入Le;, was the nurturingmetaphors, moreover, are contradictory. He compares

correlatively, a place cannot be another place. It is

middle and their various attributes (mechanicism,

countryside, of which, everyday, beyond the walls of thehere the chora with a mother (meter, 50 d 2) or a nurse

where it is, that's all there is to it. For sure, one can go

reductionism, analytism, individualism, quantitativism,

astu acrru (the town proper), they could see the hills,(tithene, 52 d 4), that is in sum with a matrix, butfrom a place to another one, but that will precisely be'In the present text, East Asian names are given in their normal order: family name first.

• In English, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2007 edition) defines«milieu »[in roman fonts, i.e. as an English word), pluraI -ieus, -ieux, as "1, An environment; (esp.
social) surroundings. 2. A group of peopie with a shared (cultural) outlook; a social classor set . In France: (a group or organization belonging to) the criminal undetworld",

subjects (S1 and S2, lakes Dongting and Biwa), which,for his part conceived of that possibilism much less

Nourished by such a logic, that is to say my surpriseeight times, are perceived as a same or analogous view

ferociously :when I discovered that in landscape matters, in East

(autumn moon on lake Dongting, etc.). In other words,

Asia, a place can be another place, or at least be seen as

the identity of predicate P ("be as a view of lake

"Tenet attributed to Vidal de la Blache by opposition

Heidegger made no mistake, when he dedicated half hisanother place. This is what is called in Japanese mitate

Dongting") subsumes (engulfs) the non-identity ofto the deterministic theses according to which theseminar of 1929-1930 to Uexkiill - a seminar which,見立て，literally "instituting visually", in other words

subjects S1 and S2.

conditions of the natural environment, notably

after his death, was published under the title Die

another place.

Schutzton, a Trinkton, etc.
That "exist as" disrupted the substantialism which,until then, had ruled Western ontology and logic.

"seeing as". It consists in seeing such or such landscapeIf you are a geographer, such a thing is impossible. As

climatic data, would determine human activities.

Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik (The fundamental concepts

as if it were another one, famous in the arts and lettersa modern scientist, you are moved by that logic of theVidal estimated that a same natural environment

ofmetaphysics) (HEIDEGGER: 1983). For sure, thanks to(NAKAMURA 1982, BERQUE 1986). In that way,

identity of the subject which we have inherited fromoffers various possibilities to humans. One shoulda subtle shift, the matter here is about Grundstimmung

throughout East Asia, starting from China, could be

Aristotle, and which has underlain modern classicalrather say that human groups, given their tools, can(basic mood) rather than about Ton and Tonung. Yet,found the "eight views" (八景，en bajing, jp hakkeりof thescience. This logic does not allow to confuse either thetake advantage in different ways from a samethe idea remains the same, except that Heidegger

Xiao and Xiang rivers, which are tributaries of lake

ousia or the topos of lake Dongting with those of lake

natural environment". (LACOSTE 2003: 310-311; myprecises the topic onto-logically. For instance, Uexkiill's

Dongting in Hunan. The Chinese tradition, since the

Biwa. The matter is different, and the scene istranslation)

demonstration according to which

Northern Song (960-1127), had instituted in these parts

elsewhere. Then, what founds the mitate, in which aeight local scenes into models of landscape: "autumn

same place can be another place, and another thing be

Replaced in its historical context, possibilism was"All the richness of the world surrounding the tickmoon on lake Dongting", "night rain on the Xiao andthe same thing ? Probably the fact that we are in a same

indeed much more than an "empty label"; it meant a(die Zecke umgebende Welt) shrinks (schnurrt

Xiang", "evening bell at the monastery in the mist",

cultural field - the area of influence of the Chinese

refutation of the determinism which, at the time,

zusammen) and transforms itself into a poor image"fishing village at sunset", "wild geese descending on aliterary culture -, but still?

dominated the German and Anglo-Saxon schools, no(ein iirmliches Gebilde), composed with only threeless. It showed that, would environmental conditions be

sensible signs5 (Merkmalen) and three agible signs6

similar,societies can develop completely(Wirkmalen) : it is its milieu (ihre Umwelt). The

different genres de vie (lifestyles). No determination,

poorness (ifrmlichkeit) of the milieu, however,then, but the contingency of history.

conditions the certainty of the activity, and certainty

sand bank", "sails returning from a distant shore","mountain village after the storm", "snow on the river at§4. From possibilism to the logic of "as"humandusk". Following China, similar scenes were discovered

As a geographer, I have been in my youth nurtured onin the neighbouring countries, and were multiplied. In

the thought of Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918),

Japan, the most famous of these "eight views", imitatedfather of the French school of geography. This school,from those of the Xiao and Xiang (Sho-Sho hakkei満湘八

which reigned in France untilwaschallenge the very notion of milieu, a term which at the景），were those of lake Biwa, near Omi (Omi hakkei近江

characterized by that which historian Lucien Febvre

time was used in the sense in which we now talk of八景） . Some other ones are less famous, like those of

called possibilism (FEBVRE 1922), a now obsolete term

environment. It is in that sense that, as we have seen, theunfurls in Heidegger into the famous thesis according toKanazawa (now a district of Yokohama) (BAKER 2010).

which Roger Brunet could mock as follows:

founder of mesology, Robin understood it. Yet, in its newwhich the stone is "worldless" (weltlos), the animal

sense of Umwelt/ehre and位doron, what mesology"worldpoor" (weltarm), and the human "world-making"(weltbildend) (HEIDEGGER 1983: §42).

thesixties,

One must add the multiple allusions to these views

is more important than richness" (UEXKULL 1965:

True, the said possibilism did not go so far as to29, my translation)

which can be found in various gardens, more or less"'tenet' attributed by Lucien Febvre to Vidal de lashowed was exactly the same fact as possibilism did ataccessible to the public.

Blache, who however never expressed it. The matter

about the same time;that in a same

One shall not fail to notice that, in Uexkiill, speaking ofis about a simple empirical attitude which consists inenvironment, different species or cultures will havethe "poorness" of the tick's world is contradictory, since

supposing that'Nature' offers a certain range ofdifferent milieux. The logic is the same, except that

it is only if compared with the Umgebung (i.e. the'possibilities', among which'Man''chooses', it ismesology brings the question much farther. Uexkiill, in

Umwelt of our science) that this world may be deemed

unclear how; derived from : pouvoir [can]. It only

particular,

proving

to be poor and reduced to a simple image. From theremains

momentary

experimentally, that an object in itself does not exist for

tick's point of view, on the other hand, its Umwelt is just

'impossible', which depends closely on the technicalan animal; it exists for it only according to a certain

as complete and real as Plato, in the last few lines of the

Evening bell at the monastery in the mist

state, resources and means.(...) Many geographers,"tone" (Ton), resulting from an operation which Uexkiill

Timaeus, judged the kosmos to be from his human pointby Chen Fu (1259-1309). Source: Baidu.

afterwards, were satisfied with that empty label,names "tonation" (Tonung). This tonation makes that aof view (that is, as a human Umwelt): o K6aµoc;ouTw (...)

What then could be the link between a place or

which they thought might attribute them a sort ofsame object will exist differently according to theµEyLarnc; Kal apLaTOc; Kil松LO"T6c; TE Kal TEAE如arnc;yt

view A, near lake Dongting in China, and a place or view

philosophical label". (BRUNET 1992 : 358; myspecies concerned. For instance, a same tuft of grass will

yovev ("Thus the world was born ... very big, good,

non-A, near lake Biwa in Japan? Let us here outline atranslation)

exist as food for a cow, as an obstacle for an ant, as abeautiful and perfect"). Heidegger for his part, from aconnection with logic and ontology. In this issue are at

Seen from that angle, this indeed is not leading far

shelter for a beetle, as drink for a cicada larvae, etc.; thatdefinitely

play two different substances, two different logicalaway. Of the same generation as Brunet, Yves Lacosteis to say respectively on an Esston, a Hinderniston, alogocentric) point of view, saw "worldpoorness as

to

try

to

describe

the

goes

as

far

namely,as

posing,and56anthropocentric

Or perceptual marks
Or operational cue carriers.

(and

more

preciselyWe must here come back to some more geography.

Hokkaido (BERQUE 1977, 1980), I had discovered that

subject, or a quality attributed to a certain substance. To

Geographers, indeed, would be the first to certify thatthe reality of one and the same island might be very

say for example that "petroleum (S: subject: substance)

Where Heidegger innovates is, as said above, inlake Dongting (Dongting hu 洞庭湖） is not lake Biwa

different depending on whether you were a Japaneseis a resource (P: predicate: quality)" is an onto-logicalconsidering that question from both a logic and an(Biwa ko 琵琶湖）• Correlatively, Hiroshige cannot havepeasant or an American agronomist. More specially, it

equivalent of the geographical reality of oilfields as

ontologic

theheard, near lake Biwa in the evening mist, the same bell

was because, a few years later, I had discovered theresources, and of the mesological reality "petroleum (S)enunciative proposition in Aristotle, he shows that thesound as Chen Fu round about lake Dongting, six

custom of mitate in the history of landscape in Japan, in

exists as a resource (P)". In other words: in a certain

Stagirite, when speaking of sunthesis西v8Emc;,

centuries before. Then, if lake Biwa can exist as lakeits perceptive array as well as in its material array; thatpredicative field - in a certain milieu -, petroleum is a

Dongting, that is certainly not geography.

is, in sum, in the reality of the Japanese milieu. And

resource, but, though it is still physically there in the"(…) means in fact what we call the structure ofthence, I had come to understand that the reality of any

environment, it is not a resource in all milieux and not at'as'(als-Struktur). It is what he means, without reallyhuman milieu is a matter of ambivalent prises (orall times in human history (e.g. not for the Inuit until oil

advancing expressly into the dimension of thataffordances, in the vocabulary of GIBSON 1979)

companies came on stage).

problem. The structure of'as', the in advance unifying

between nature and society; namely, that for humanThe said predicative field is also called by Nishida

perception(vorgangige einheitbildende Vernehmen)beings, the physical data of the environment exist as four

"historical world" (rekishi sekai 歴史世界）， or straightof something as something (etwas als etwas), is themain categories or predicates: resources, constraints,

out "predicate world" [jutsugo sekai 述語世界）• That

condition of possibility of the truth or the falseness ofrisks and amenities. The reality of these predicates iscould well have met the Uexkiillian Ton, and consequently

入6yoc;" (HEIDEGGER 1983: 456; Heidegger's italics,

historical, and depends both on nature and society. For

Heidegger's Welt, by showing that a same logic is at

my translation).

instance (let it be said to simplify), petroleum in itself

work in the three cases: that of "as", i.e. a/s in German

is not a resource. It exists as a resource only inasmuch

and soku即in Japanese. Such a meeting would haveyou have invented the combustion engine andallowed to build a genuine logic of milieux - a mesa-logic

world-deprivation" (Entbehren von Welt) (HEIDEGGER
1983 : §46).

point of view.

Whencommenting

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) Evening bell at Mii monastery.
Source : Kokkai Toshokan.

This«in advance unifying perception», constitutiveof a world (Welt),

Heidegger assimilates it to the

Yet that was indeed as a geographer, and in an

petrochemistry. For the Inuit, who nevertheless had-, but, unhappily, it did not happen. Instead of searching

predication of "a as b", which makes that "a is b". It is theencyclopedia of geography, that I could one day write

had it under their feet for millenia, the oil of Alaska

for a middle course between Aristotelian logic, i.e. that"structural moment of manifestness" (Strukturmoment

the following :simply did not exist. Then came oil companies, andof the identity of the subject(hereafter lgS) and his own

the reality of the Alaskan milieu changed.

logic of the predicate (hereafter lgP), Nishida only

der Offenbarkeit), by dint of which the things appear as
something. It is the "as" of the being as such(das Seiende"Wouldn't the distinctive feature of geography beThis problematic once established (BERQUE 1986,

capsized lgS into its enantiomer, the absolutization ofals solches), in sum the qua of the ens qua ens, the he Ti ofthat it poses the question of that'as'(en tant que), in1990), there remained to take head-on the question oflgP, by assimilating P to absolute nothingness (zettai mu

the on he on av TI ov (HEIDEGGER 1983 : §69).

which the physical and the social hold only in"as" in its relation with reality. What does "exist as"絶対無）， that is the pole opposite to that of substance

relation to each other?

And in which the land,mean? Back to the very term "category", which I was(BERQUE ed. 2000, 2002). Now, absolutizing P is, ipso

this logic and this ontology of the "as". On the otherthrough resources, constraints, risks and amenities,

using about the issue of the said affordances, when I

facto, absolutizing one's own world; in other words,

hand, that is precisely what mesology has aimed at.

the value of which is always relative (lived,

started to work - still as a geographer, since Vidal de lalapsing into ethnocentrism and nationalism. Neither

perceived, conceived), is only the milieu in which

Blache had defined my discipline as a "science of places"

Nishida himself nor his followers, even to-day, realized§5. Capsizing the logic of the subject into that of thehuman space unfurls, that environment which(science des lieux)(ROBIC 1980) - on the "logic of place"

that; but it is indeed what such a philosophy entails.

predicate will not sufficeappears as a landscape, and which, in a feedback,(bashoKitaroOne can also show, in another direction, that thisAccording to Heidegger, as we just have seen,

humans develop in the sense of the representations(1870-1945), I discovered at the same time that Nishida,philosophy takes place, in more than one respect, in the

Aristotle did not venture into the problematic of "as".

they have of it. (…） basically, only a matter offor saying the same thing, used as well the expression

wake of Buddhist thought. I will come back to this later;

The opposite would have been surprising from thedifferent points of view on a same object".(BERQUE"logic of the predicate" Uutsugo no ronri 述語の論理）

let us confine ourselves here to notice that Nishida's

father of the logic of the identity of the subject, alias logic

1992: 367-368; my translation)(NISHIDA 1927, 1945). In fact, rather than "place",philosophical system tends to absolutize worldliness as

a common translation of the term basho 場所 since it

absolute nothingness, zettai mu 絶対無．

However, Heidegger did not elaborate much fartherof the identity of substance, since a logic of the "as" is

no

ronri

場所の論理）

of

Nishidaprecisely not a logic of substance. When, in the logic ofAt the time, over a quarter of a century ago, I had readis its ordinary meaning, the Nishidian basho wouldThis absolutization of the world, in Nishida, expresses

mitate, lake Biwa is looked at as lake Dongting, that can

nothing of Uexkiill nor of Heidegger. My questioning

more adequately be rendered with "field" or, better,

itself notably by reducing systematically the Other to theevidently not be a logic of substance. The substance ofwas purely geographical, and seen from to-day, purely"predicative field".

Same. This is textually what means the formula whichlake Biwa is not that of lake Dongting. The subject - thatin the wake of possibilism. If, however, I had come to

Almost at the same time, I discovered that Aristotle

reigns supreme on his system: zettai mujunteki jikowhich the matter is about - is not the same. Then, whattalk of en tant que (as), it was because in the seventies,

used kategoria Ka1:riyop(a in the sense in which we now

doitsu 絶対矛盾的自己同 一， "absolutely contradictory

kind of logic is it?

while preparing my thesis on the colonization oftalk of "predicate": that is, what is said about a logicalself identity". Commenting such an oxymoron would

require pages, but what does it entail, really? That all thecharacterize individuals. It shall not be necessary to

A world, whichever it is, cannot arise if not from anproblematic of milieux. That a same particle can,differencesin theunderline what this implies politically: the radical

Umgebung, that is from the Earth, which is its

according to the experimental device, exist for us as aself-identity of the world. Correlatively, in Nishidian

impossibility that Antigone ever opposes Creon, sincehupokeimenon - its necessary base: S. Yet, this universal

wave or as a corpuscle, or that two particles can behavephraseology, there are plenty of formulas - theCreon is ... absolute nothingness!

base does not exist- it does not ek-sist (stand out) fromas a same particle in two different places, such facts do

betweenbeings areresolved

preceding one to begin with - which allow to say any

As I have argued elsewhere (BERQUE 1998), Nishida's

the gangue of its self-identity- if it is not drawn outside

not tally with the Aristotelian substance and topicity

thing and its contrary; for instance, "worldwar must be

philosophy holds in itself that at which expressly aimed

by a certain world (P) which, by predicating it, will(placeness) proper to modern classic science. On theworldwar for negating worldwar (sekai senso wo hitei

the militarism of his time: to nihilate the responsibility

assume it, realize it as something (als etwas, would sayother hand, they are strangely consonant with suchsuru tame no[.. .} sekai senso), for eternal peace (eien noof the citizen, by engulfing it in what Heidegger calls "theHeidegger). Hence the mesological idea that reality is themesological notions as mediance仰dosei

heiwa no tame)" (NISHIDA 1945: 439). The last of the

They" (das Man), and about which he writes "the They

assumption ofSas P, which I sum up with the formula r =defined by Watsuji as "the structural moment of humanlast, what else? One can also easily find in Nishida the(…） each time takes away from the Dasein his

S/P (reality is S as P) (BERQUE 2003).

existence" (ningen sonzai no kozo keiki 人間存在の構造

idea that, if alterity is resolved in identity, the latter

responsibility", since the They is "that about which we

supposes the former, etc.; which allows to quibble

must say : it was nobody

風上性）一What is here essential, and which characterizes the

契機 (WATSUJI 1979: 3) - i.e. the dynamic coupling of(das, van dem wir sagen

meso-logic of mesology, is that concretely, there cannot

Being and its milieu -, choresy - the unfurling of a sameindefinitely over the place of the Same and the Other inmiissen, keiner war es)" (HEIDEGGER 1993: 127). Just as

be S without P, nor P without S. Modern classic science,

predicative field, therefore extending a milieu over thethat philosophy.

that cunning Ulysses to Polyphemus: Oudeis ou6i::(c;the dualism of which absolutizes the substance of theenvironment -, concrescence - the growing-together of(Nobody)!

object (i.e. S: that which the matter is about) does

Being and its milieu -, etc. (BERQUE 2000, 2018 etc.)

exactly the opposite of what did Nishida,

which characterize the empirical grasp of reality.

Confronting these mirror games, what must not be
forgotten is the absolute closure of this worldliness on

Nishida adds p. 408 : "The world (...), that does notitself. As a matter of fact, Nishida often uses the formulamean a world opposed to our self. It is nothing else thanabsolutized P. In both cases, it is a profession of faith,

What then, for mesology, is the said "empirical grasp"sekai no jiko gentei 世界の自己限定， «self-determinationthat which tends to express its absolute placehood

since empirically, there is never S without P, nor the? It is the trajection of S as P, in other words theof the world». This goes along with an absolute(zettai no bashoteki u wo arawaso to suru), and this isreverse. Without a certain predicate, S would remain

realization of S (the transformation of the virtuality of S

constructivism, in which, if every thing also determines

why one can say that it is the absolute (zettaisha 絶対者

forever closed up in mere virtuality, that of its self

into a reality S /P) through the senses, action (whichitself, it ultimately comes down to the circularity of a)", and p. 457: "That it comprises indefinitely thisidentity. This is what physics has discovered andconcern all the living), thought (which concerns only

world endowed with the will to create itself through theself-negation Uiko hitei 自己否定） is precisely theproved experimentally in the XX: century, which led

superior animals) and language7 (this is proper to the sole"absolutely contradictory self identity from what isreason why the world exists just by itself (sore jishin ni

precociously Heisenberg to acknowledging thathuman). This is what concretely produces the reality

created to what is creating" (tsukurareta mono kara

yotte arり，moves by itself, and why one can consider it as

tsukuru mono e to mujunteki jiko doitsuteki ni) (NISHIDA”

absolute existence (zettaiteki jitsuzai 絶対的実在） ．

who

th

(S/P) of milieux (S/P), those of the living in general as well
"If one may speak of the image of nature according

as those of the human in particular. Now, this trajection is1945: 391): "Every thing determines itself baselessly

From the point of view of mesology, that does notto the exact sciences of our time, one shoulda process - historical or, at another time scale,(mukiteiteki ni jiko jishin wo gentei suru), that is, it holds

stand up, since, for standing up, you need a ground onunderstand here, rather than the image of nature,

evolutionary-, where indefinitely, through generations,

its own self Uiko jishin wo motsu) from its very

which to stand onto-logically (i.e. a hupokeimenon) as

the image of our relationship with nature. (...) It is

new predicates P', P", P

self-determination" (Id.: 390). "The historical world

well as ecologically (i.e. an Umgebung). In a word, you

first and foremost the network of the relations

into (S/P)/P', ((S/P)/P')/P", (((S/P)/P')/P")/P

forms itself Uiko jishin wo keisei suru) self-formatively

need planet Earth, that primum datum which the various

between man and nature which that science isthus placing indefinitely S/P in position of S' relatively

Uikokeiseiteki m), as willing-active Being (ishi sayoteki u

concrete milieux of the living species, including ours,

aiming at. (...) Science, ceasing to be the spectator of

to P', then of S" relatively to P", and so on. This is what I

toshite) (Id.: 391).

have evolved from; whereas for Nishida's absolutenature, recognizes itself as part of the reciprocal

call a trajective chain (chafne trajective, BERQUE 2014,

In the scientific domain, one can easily find here what,

constructivism - a radical forerunner of the French

actions between nature and man. The scientificpassim). Now, taking into account the homology offor instance, inspired lmanishi Kinji's idea that intheory-, the world has no ground : it is baseless (mukitei

method, which chooses, explains, orders, admits thethe two couples subject / predicate in logic andevolution, contrary to Darwin's theory (in which the無基底） (op. cit, passim).

limits which are imposed on it by the fact that the use

substance/accident in metaphysics, this is to say thatof the method transforms the object, and that,the predicate P, which is unsubstantial for Aristotle asevolution of the species is the mechanical result of the"'etc. overpredicate reality S/P
"'

etc.,

selection of individual organisms), it is the species§6. Overcoming the MCWP with the meso-logic ofconsequently, the method cannot anymore separate

well as for Nishida, will progressively be substantialized.

which, as such, determines the course of its own

mesology

itself from its object". (HEISENBERG 1962: 33-34)

This conversion of unsubstance into substance isevolution (IMANISHI 1980). Yet more generally, andWhile we owe to Nishida the idea that the world is aontologically, if the world is endowed with will and actspredicative field (P) - for mesology, it is indeed theThis relational view was born, as we know, from theon its own, it is simply because it subsumes, as the

combination of all the "as" according to which we have anumerous paradoxes of quantum physics, such as thenothingness of a predicative field, individual beings, andhold on things as something -, on the other hand, we

intrication of different states,

non-separability orThis is for instance what shows the history of humanaccordingly invests itself with the properties whichcannot follow him in his absolutization of the predicate.

non-locality. We have here several analogies with thesettlements. Hypostasis, in that case, was not only

traditionally called a hypostasis. A trajective chain is,then, the history of such a hypostasis, the evolution of a
substantialization.

'As defined by double articulation, not only the transmission of signs as in biosemiotics

metaphysical, but eminently sensible and material.

What we can see here, in a sublime shortcut, is theformula qian wei hou yizhi 前為後依止. Yet there is an"As Hinayana Buddhism, in general, holds that all

Starting from the myth of the Golden Age and its Chinese

essence of what happens in trajective chains, where

essential difference, namely that Buddhism does notexists8, and grasps the diverse beings not as void(ku

equivalent(Datang 大同， the Great Identity), that is,there is - but progressively, historically and evolutionarily

consider this as a hypostasis at all : the dharma arise空） but as there-is(u 有）， the thought of array, forfrom mere words(P), and through successive stages -- a hypostasis of P into S, and where, unless through the

because of their very unsubstance, and while proppingthat reason, was more than additive. It is probably

mandarinal hermiticism and the invention of "landscape"mystic leap of religious faith, one cannot ever return toeach other, remain unsubstantial. For mesology, such an

for that reason that it detailed to the utmost thein China, hence the realization of landscape gardens,

the initial genuine S. We find that same hypostasis of theabsolutization of unsubstance is a mystic leap, typical ofconcept of 'sesetsu施設— array', which one mayhence of suburban villas inspired by the fabrics of suchpredicate in the Koran, said to be God's Word itself. Etc.

a religion. From a Buddhistic point of view, considering

trace back to Foyin(Buddhagosa)'s The error ofgardens, hence of modern suburbs, hence of urban

It is the logic of myth, which is a hypostasis ofnisraya as a hypostasis, were it relative and progressive,

human array9 . The term which sesetsu施設arraysprawl, hence of our present way of life: diffuse

unsubstance(P) into substance(S). This is indeed what

would be nothing else than a heresy; but this is preciselytranslated, pafi.fi.atti, seems grossly synonymous

urbanization, the ecological footprint of which is

Roland Barthes showed in his Mythologies when

the stance of mesology.

with the prajfi.apti of Mahayana Buddhism, but

unsustainable -, it has entailed, three thousand years

defining myth as the effect of a "semiological chain" inAnother concept of Buddhism seems to have much inwhereas the latter is very abstruse, the former waslater, a telluric effect: global warming, a substantial S if

which a former sign(the signifier s• as the signified Sり＝

common with mesology : paryiiya, which has been

conceived as an explicit doctrine, which expresses

any!
(BERQUE 2010)

S as P) becomes in its turn the signifier(s•·= S') of arendered with categoriel(categorial)(CORNU 2001:

clearly its link with the thought of the Abhidharma.

In that way, in the history of milieux, world P isfurther signified(S"'= P', i.e. S'/P')(BARTHES 1957). To

799). Xuanzang(600-664) translated it with "different

According to the research made by Mr Sasaki(Sasakiindefinitely hypostatized into ground S, which indefinitely

be sure, Barthes did not use exactly the same formulas

door", yimen 異門(jp imon)(YAMAUCHI 1974 : 315).

Genjun, Research on the thought of the Abidharma),makes it the base(hupokeimenon) of further worlds P',

as the above trajective chains, but the underlying logic is

The idea is that there are different accesses to a samethe various acceptations of pafi.fi.atti are thethe same: that of a hypostasis.

thing, none of which can be deemed to be else than afollowing. Most generally, it means'law contained in

betweenmundane truth - ultimate truth being precisely thata certain limit'(paricchinna dhamma), which

which is an abstraction, concrete reality is trajective;

Christianism and Buddhism, in that the latter isthere is no proper nature of the thing. These "different

expresses that'absoluity offers aspects limited

therefore, it is indefinitely a genesis of beings, aprecisely antipodal to substantialism. On the contrary, it

doors" seem to be homologous with the "as" of mesology,

by categorized significations'. This is to say that the

becoming of Being - precisely that which Plato, whenposes that all is relation, and elaborates this relativity

and particularly with Uexkiillian "tones"(Tone), which

generaltrying to conceive of the chora, called genesis ytvEmc;.

with a great conceptual luxury, from which Nishida, had

are never the object in itself, but somehow a certain

absolute things, through self-determination, present

When he tried to overcome substantialism - that of

he not been obsessed with the idea of capsizing

access to the object, respectively proper to eachvarious concrete aspects. Just in the same way as, for

Aristotle and Plato as well as that of Christianism -, why

Aristotle's lgS into its enantiomer lgP, might have taken

different species. It is the same in human milieux: forexample, in a bedroom, bed and chair are not laid out

didn't Nishida think of a meso-logic, i.e. a logic ofa more meso-logical party. Whereas he only speaks of

instance, that which for a certain culture can exist as a

no matter how, but disposed in order, first conceived

trajection and trajectivity(S/P) rather than of a logic

absolute nothingness and baselessness, Buddhism fordelicacy(S/P), can also be considered as uneatablethen laid out, and only so all is ready. Patthapeti is toof the predicate(lgP)? Because his inspiration(sk nisraya, en yizhi
its part also speaks of "propping"(S/P') by another culture, independently from what the

install, but pafi.fi.atti signifies, more upstream,'letfundamentally came from Buddhism(especially from依止， jp eji or eshi), namely that the relations, while

object is in itself(S). Here then, predicate P corresponds

know','reveal'. Above all, as an'array which letsZen, which he practised), which precisely, as a religion,

being

to Xuanzang's yimen.

exist' 10, it meant first reveal, announce Being itselfl- 1.

absolutizes its own predicates - in this case under the

Mahayanasiitralamkara(one of the founding classics ofThese various relations combine themselves into

In order to reveal, to let people know what a thing is,name of "ultimate truth"(Sanskrit

paramii.rtha,

Mahayana Buddhism) writes for example : "It is because

what Buddhism named prajiiapti in Sanskrit, andwhat Being is, you need some equipment12. It is thetranslated in Chinese as shengyi 勝義， pronounced

they have no proper nature that(all the dharma) arise /paiiiiatti in Pali. This term is ordinarily rendered with

first condition for letting Being be manifestly

shogi in Japanese).

The anterior props the posterior(Wu ziti gu cheng, qian

"conceptualization" or "designation", but I prefer tothere 13 ".

wei hou yizhi 無自憫故成、 前為後依止）"(GIRARD

render it with "array"(agencement), having in mind, on

2008: vol. I, p. 212).

the one hand, what evokes its Chinese translation shishe

This "array which lets exist" must be compared with

P", P

"'

and so on, and correlatively of new milieux S/P,

S'/P', S"/P" etc. Far from the self identity of substance,

No wonder, this in fact is also what Christianism did
when posing that the Word(which is intrinsically

Yet

there

is

an

unsubstantial,

essential

supportdifference

eachother.

The

meaningofsesetsu施設array

is

that

predicative, since it says something P about something

There is much in common between the said

施設(jp sesetsu), and on the other hand Heidegger's

what has been said above under the name of trajection.

S) is God(absolute subject : substance : S), paradigmatically"propping" and the trajective chains of mesology, aGestell and Foucault's dispositif(AGAMBEN 2006). In

Trajection indeed is that which lets exist(ek-sist, standso in the beginning of Saint John's Gospel : 1. In thereason for which I came to speak of "trajective

mesological terms, it is the choresy(extension of aout) S as P, i.e. S/P, a reality which is not S in itself

beginning was the Word('Ev up苅�v o入6yo c;) ; 2. andpropping"(ca/age trajectif). In the trajective linkage of apredicative field; from the Greek xropTJCJt�, action of going(the Real, that ideal goal of physics), and therefore canthe Word was with God [this is the canonical translation,

mesological chain, each posterior predicate tends toforward) of a certain milieu(S/P). About such array,be held as that which physicist and philosopher

but the Greek Kal o入6yo c; �v npo c; Tov 8E6v can also be

hypostatize an anterior S/P, thus establishing a new link

Yamauchi writes the following(op. cit. : 323-324, my

Bernard d'Espagnat called "veiled real"(reel voile)read : and the Word P was about God S]; 3. and the Wordin the chain, on which it can prop itself as on a groundtranslation):

was God(Kal 0Eo c;�v o入6yo c;), i.e. P was S.

(D'ESPAGNAT 1979, 1994, 2002). Mesology also, when
speaking of the trajectiveness of things, means that they(hupokeimenon). This can exactly be represented by the' Ubu有部，abbreviation of Setsu issai u bu説 一 切有部： Sarviistiviidin (A.B.).
9 Jin sesetsuron kai, en Ren shishelun gua人施設論註，pl Puggalapaiiiiattipali (AB).
10 Sonzai seru sesetsu存在せる施設．
11 Sonzai sono mono wo kaij, shi, kokuji suru存在そのものを開示し、 告示する．

32 Setsubi設備．
33 Sore wa sonzai wo shite gen ni soko ni aru mono tarashimeru dai ichi no j�ken de aru
それは存在をして現にそこにあるものたらしめる第 一の条件である．

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Following Yamauchi, I shall consider binegation as theexistence

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its

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