Abstract
Otherness is a fundamental concept, which dictionaries struggle to define, and which they locate at the root of thought. It is also a feeling through which reality summons us. It is a path to meet what follows its own course, and what we do not possess the meaning of. Today, there is very little space for otherness in the dominant Western conceptions of nature and human identity, nor in our resulting lifestyles. The dense presence of natural beings is hardly perceptible in the “environment” that provides the context for human lives. This doctoral dissertation takes otherness as its guide and seeks what makes the idea of nature porous, that is to say, what makes it dialogue with what it aims at in reality. The purpose of this reflection is to draw paths of encounter between human and other than human beings, where one does not remain sheltered in one’s system of reference points, but where one exposes them to surprise and doubt. It is a matter of contextualising our reference points in a vertiginous reality and of making contact with deeply singular, disconcerting and fascinating existences. These paths must be based on as few assumptions as possible: they are a work of disposition of the human self where silence, attention and lightness of the tools of thought allow the asymptotic encounter of deeply singular beings, that are irreducible and inexhaustible by our reference points. The first question concerns how to identify a being other than oneself in nature without assuming anything about it. I propose to approach natural beings in terms of ways of being. This enables to let them present themselves without giving any prior form to their singularity. It also allows us to avoid excluding any presence from our field of attention and consideration. Light, winds and stones have as much ontological consistency as living beings. The diversity of ways of being shapes a common world, made by all beings, with multiple dimensions, instead of a context world. A second question concerns how to define the human point of view so that otherness is not reduced to our experience of it. By thinking human identity in terms of ways of being, and by anchoring ourselves in a common world made by singular natural beings, we belong to what is beyond our reach. This settles us in a vast reality where asymptotes are necessary to meet other beings, and where we can grasp mysteries. From this perspective, a face-to-face between human and other than human beings takes form. Natural beings are deeply linked to each other, and at the same time there is a fundamental otherness between them. The “same” and the “other” open up a variety of comparative paths where beings meet in metamorphic exchanges, in a kaleidoscope of resemblances and differences. Identity and otherness cannot exist without each other: they shape an ontological balance that must be respected for the meeting to happen. Natural beings do not merge, and yet there is no rupture between them. I propose to define ethics on the basis of this ontological balance: the common world of natural beings is a reality of being-together, and ethics are the human ways of orienting oneself in this being-together. Between taking and giving, ethics provide for orientation in a difficult interdependent coexistence. Acknowledging and respecting otherness in nature is a work of disposition of oneself, based on a silent form of attention. This thesis proposes paths of meeting that seek to respond to the issues raised by the challenging guide that is otherness, as a concept and as a feeling, in order to face up to what we are currently destroying.