The Concept of Nature in Politics

Abstract

The panel seeks to determine what role(s) the often neglected concept of nature can and should play in shaping political theory and the study of politics. Nature was (at) the core of political theory up to the times of Hobbes, Locke and Spinoza, but after Hume and Kant discredited nature as a foundation of ethics, its explanatory role somehow disappeared as well. However, a number of recent developments indicate that nature’s role in political theory is not over yet. Some contemporary researchers are investigating possible contributions of genetics and sociobiology to politics. Others, e.g. animal rights scholars, are analyzing new ways of understanding nature as (possibly not) opposed to culture. Theorists of justice increasingly include the management of and access to ecological benefits and burdens from food and water to global warming in their research. And while many scholars of environmental politics adopted various interpretations of sustainability, others have criticized this as a self-defeating strategy, trading in nature for environment and true ecologism for human egoism.

Participants in this panel will consider why empirical and philosophical theories of politics incorporating the notion of nature are marginalized and how conceptualizations of the political sphere can (again) incorporate nature. At least three approaches to this issue are possible: systematic (e.g., Does nature exist? How does nature differ from environment? Can we think about nature yet avoid the ‘is-ought fallacy’? Was nature always constructed in opposition to humanity?), normative (e.g., Can and should different conceptions of nature result in alternative theories of justice, citizenship, democracy and polity?) and interdisciplinary (e.g., How do difference accounts of nature shape policy areas? How can political theories of nature better contribute to and learn from empirical political science?)

Keywords: nature, political theory, green politics

We have investigated whether there is an interest in this topic, and we have received a high number of responses and high-quality paper proposals. Therefore, we would like this panel to include 5 papers plus two tabled one, but given the amount of proposals already received, we would be very happy to accommodate more if we are allowed to do so. After very careful consideration and the exclusion of several other proposals that did not fit the panel theme, this is the tentative list of possible paper givers and titles:
- Rickard Andersson (Lund University, Sweeden): “Modernity and the concept of nature: a tale of ambiguity”
- Manuel Arias-Maldonado (University of Malaga, Spain): “Death and resurrection? Nature after the end of nature”
- Marius de Geus (Leiden University, the Netherlands): “Nature, liberalism and visions of a green utopia”
- Gert Goeminne and Karen François (Free University Brussels, Belgium): “Latourian politics of nature: how to reconstruct the environment as a matter of concern”
- Benjamin Gregg (University of Texas, USA): “Enlightened eugenics or eugenics contra equality?”
- Simon Hailwood (University of Liverpool, UK): “Alienations and nature”
- Liviu Mantescu (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Germany) and Alberto Arroyo Schnell (World Wide Fund for Nature): “Fill the earth and subdue it! A review of the human/nature paradigmatic scission in the light of current policies of nature conservation in Europe”
- Christoph Jedan (University of Groningen, the Netherlands): “The pitfalls of following nature. Stoic appeals to nature as a normative guideline”.

Tabled papers:
- Marcel Wissenburg
- Carme Melo-Escrihuela

Title	Details
Conceptions of Nature in Theories of Citisenship	View Paper Details
The Concept of Nature in Libertarianism	View Paper Details
Highlands Commons, Nature Conservation and ‘The Ecology of Chaos’	View Paper Details
Death and Resurrection? Nature after the End of Nature	View Paper Details
Physics, Natura and the Nature of Relationship Between Politics and Physics	View Paper Details
Alienations and Natures	View Paper Details
The Pitfalls of Following Nature. Stoic Appeals to Nature as a Normative Guideline	View Paper Details