Ethics and Ontology

A View From a Contemporary Philosophy of Nature

Abstract

The philosophy of nature can only be linked to scientific knowledge and its most recent results, but, as it is primarily philosophy, it requires further reflection on its theoretical foundations, on the particular status of the discipline as well as on the particular character of its object, nature. A philosophy of nature that presents itself at the same time as a metaphysics of nature (bringing together the complexity of scientific knowledge) and as a ‘transcendental’ reflection on the grounding of being in general is capable of establishing a systematic vision of knowledge that presents solutions in the ethical field too. But in what way can a philosophy of nature provide an answer to the fundamental questions of ethics without risking any form of reductionism? Is there room for freedom within a contemporary philosophy of nature? And what would it entail?