Wawrzyn Warkocki - Φύσις and 自然 : On the Moving of Nature
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 06/05/2019

ENOJP4 Hildesheim 2018
Panel 23: Nature and Contingency

Φύσις and 自然 : On the Moving of Nature

Wawrzyn Warkocki (Toulouse / Wuppertal)

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to elaborate a concept of nature based on the archaic Greek notion of physis and the Taoist idea of ziran in respect to their common trait: movedness. The topic of the conference is Übergänge − Transitions − 移り渉り and our task is to phenomenologically approach the core of those three concepts, namely Gang, ire and 歩 , i.e. movement, motion, movedness. Every transition presupposes the possibility of movement. Before we deal with a transition from one state to another, we must face beforehand the aimless, “imperfect” movedness or “activity” (ἐνέργεια ἀτελής) which characterizes the nature itself. This is precisely what Aristotle states in “the foundational book of Western philosophy” (Heidegger) on 
 he notion of physis in terms of ἐνέργεια ἀτελής or δύναμις and above all in terms of movement (κίνησις), because “nature is a principle or cause of being moved” (ἀρχὴ κινήσεως) or in other words the origin of motion. We will try to follow this intuition with the Heideggerian reading of physis based on his phenomenological reevaluation of Aristotle and his retrieval of Prescoratics. We will focus on his notion of movedness (Bewegtheit) in the interpretation of facticial life, then his reading of κίνησις as appropriation (Eignung) in order to interpret the affinity between archaic physis and the notion of the event of appropriation (Ereignis). In this way, we will be able to achieve the minimal phenomenological level of what could be called nature in its facticity. We will then turn to the intriguing proximity of this reading of physis with the basic notion of philosophical Taoism ziran. We will try to read ziran following James Qingjie Wang as “it-self-so-ing,” i.e. in a verbal way as a spontaneous movement of disclosure that has its principle in itself. In this context we will stress the grammatical innovations of Heidegger in his reading of Ereignis (middle voice, verbal meanings, tautological constructions) and Neo-Taoist notion of “term without characterization but rather a word in the extremely radical sense” (Wang Bi) applied to ziran. Secondly, we will try to compare both notions on the basis of a radical facticity, i.e. groundlessness characterizing both physis and ziran. According to Guo Xiang, “Everything is natural (ziran) and does not know why it is so.“ This kind of „factitial naturalism” shakes the basic concepts of Western metaphysics and allows Heidegger o pursue the project of its deconstruction (Abbau). But it, additionally, allows us to achieve a more open approach to philosophy, since, as Marcel Conche states in his commentary on the Daodejing: “As nature is the only thing that offers itself evidently to all people, an ecumenical philosophy can only be a philosophy of Nature.”

This talk took place at the forth annual conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy [ENOJP], 5 – 8 September 2018, Universität Hildesheim, Kulturcampus Domäne Marienburg, Germany.

More informations:
http://enojp.org/
http://chisokudopublications.blogspot.com/
https://enojp4.wordpress.com/

Art Direction: Robin Alberding & Jerome Ebeling (CC-BY 3.0)