Physis

Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities. 2021. Vol. 26. No. 6. P. 15–30.

Haas A.

"There is only one truly philosophical problem: suicide," Camus insists. But today, this problem has metastasized and spread across the globe. Threatening the whole of nature, the climate crisis puts us on the verge of self-destruction. So again, there is only one truly philosophical problem: the suicide of the human race, along with much murder. But what - if anything - can philosophy contribute to considering this problem? First, it can take up the task of thinking the nature of nature, that is, how nature's way of being, and being one temporally and aspectually - which the Greeks call physis —is growing and decaying on its own, moving and being moved by itself, that is, becoming or self-becoming. Second, it can seek to uncover how our traditional understanding of physisimplies a certain privileged metaphysics of presence and absence - and how this must be suspended, if we are to consider nature's way of being as implying, and implied. Third, it can illuminate the implications this suspension has for nature, and for us - especially insofar as we are implicated in the destruction of physis . Thus, stepping-back from all these suicides and murders, philosophy can attempt to pick up on that which nature implies, take up what is being suggested by nature - and by being, especially insofar as it is implied, an implication - and so, clue into nature's nature, most powerful of all and most excellent.

Keywords: metaphysics, implication, nature, physis, Pindar