From the rift to the metabolic mismatch: ecological crisis, materialism and philosophy of nature

Abstract

In this article I advocate for the importance of a materialist approach to the discussion of whether there is a radical separation between human beings and nature caused by capitalism. I argue that capitalism establishes a relationship in nature characterized by its singular violence, insofar as it pretends to capture the contingency of natural processes as a function of the abstract temporal logic of capital valorization.  First, I discuss Friedrich W. J. Schelling's philosophy of nature, one of the first in modern philosophy to raise the question of the separation between man and nature. Second, I argue how Marx's thought and ecomarxism allow us to locate this problem in the concrete historical conditions of capitalism. Finally, I present a Marxian interpretation centered on the notion of contingency that seeks to offer an alternative in the ecomarxist dispute and to radicalize Schelling's philosophy of nature.