Since Heraclitus' famous aphorism "Nature likes to veil herself", the conception of nature has undergone profound changes: from the powerful and dynamic physis of Greek philosophy to the vulnerable ecosystem, from the playful and unpredictable lascivia to a mechanistic view of nature, from the Sublime to something ready to be dominated, from a primordial force to the "second nature" in contemporary technology. The various conceptions of nature – such as Zeno's "artistic fire", "Mother Nature", nature as living organism, nature as a hieroglyph – problematize at the same time the porous boundaries between nature and culture, between nature and art, between the non-human and the human, between nature and technology. We will focus on seminal texts from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance Neo-Platonism, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, 20th century ecology and eco-criticism.

2–6 LP

Termine:

Fr 19.05.17, 14:00–19:30

Sa 17.06.17, 09:00–17:00

Sa 15.07.17, 09:00–17:00