Naturvergessenheit

Erinnerung an die verlorene Ganzheit des Menschen im 18. Jahrhundert

Abstract

English Abstract: This paper follows the narrative of humanity's forgetfulness of nature (Naturvergessenheit) and its consequences. Max Horkheimer’s and Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialectic of the Enlightenment serves as a starting and end point for a reflection on historical constellations of body concepts, human societies, and nature. These body concepts have been negotiated as nervous bodies since the 18th century and have repeatedly put a lost wholeness (Ganzheit) up for debate. Although no relief was found for the almost pathological desire for wholeness, the negotiations helped to verbalize something which has recurred since the Enlightenment: a dialectical desire for reconciliation and an ongoing emancipatory attempt to remember one's own nature.