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Frontiers of Philosophy in China

ISSN 1673-3436

ISSN 1673-355X(Online)

CN 11-5743/B

Postal Subscription Code 80-983

Front. Philos. China    2017, Vol. 12 Issue (2) : 237-248    https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-006-017-0017-7
Orginal Article
The Earth Garden: Going Back or Going Forward to Nature?
Jos de Mul()
Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Abstract

Against the background of a short meditation on the contrasting ways in which landscape has been represented and idealized in Eastern and Western painting traditions, the article will try to show, using some striking examples, that the development of landscape painting in the last two centuries reflects the changing relationship of humanity and nature, leading in both the East and in the West to either the expression of a nostalgic longing for nature to be back as it once was, or to a gloomy expression of the vanishing of nature amidst the modern, technological world. Connecting to both the concept of “harmony,” which is a key concept in Eastern aesthetics, and to some recent reflections in Western philosophy on the relationship of nature and technology, a post-nostalgic conception of nature and natural beauty is defended, in which nature and technology are no longer seen as opposing categories, but rather as poles that are intertwined in an ever-lasting process of co-evolution. It is argued that we should not so much strive to go “back to nature,” but rather to go “forward to nature” and establish a new harmony between human and non-human nature and technology. The article ends with some reflections on the role artists and aestheticians may play in this transformation.

Keywords environmental pollution      environmental aesthetics      philosophy of nature      comparative aesthetics      philosophy of technology     
Issue Date: 24 July 2017
 Cite this article:   
Jos de Mul. The Earth Garden: Going Back or Going Forward to Nature?[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2017, 12(2): 237-248.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fpc/EN/10.3868/s030-006-017-0017-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fpc/EN/Y2017/V12/I2/237
[1] Dmytro Mykhailov. The Phenomenological Roots of Technological Intentionality: A Postphenomenological Perspective[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2020, 15(4): 612-635.
[2] Liu Qingping. The Worldwide Significance of Chinese Aesthetics in the Twenty-First Century[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2006, 1(1): 33-40.
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