Nature/Culture Dichotomy and the Anthropocentrism Philosophical Issues of the Ontological Turn

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Nahir Fernandez

Abstract

"Human nature" is a central concept for philosophical anthropology in all its epochs. Since Renaissance humanism was manifested an anthropocentric turn that highlighted the essential characteristics of the human. Later, scientific anthropology and sociology consolidated themselves as disciplines by demarcating the sphere of culture and society, respectively, as something different from the natural. Regarding human nature, it was common to find this division replicated in terms of the opposition between the innate (genes) and the acquired (environment). Nature and culture were thus presented as separate ontological and epistemological spheres. However, numerous criticisms have been directed towards these divisions from several fields of study.


In this article we propose, in the first instance, to present the main features of the notion of human nature within the framework of the nature/culture dichotomy, and its consequent use by some scientific disciplines. In a second moment, we will present the different ways in which both concepts and their intertwining have been questioned from different perspectives such as contemporary biology, anthropology and philosophy. For this, we will refer to both the questions directed towards anthropocentrism, as well as the attempts to overcome or dissolve the nature/culture dichotomy from notions such as coevolution, post-humanism and the Anthropocene. We will inscribe these debates in the Ontological Turn of the social sciences and its impact in Latin American cases, mentioning the drifts in relation to the Anthropocene.

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How to Cite
Fernandez, N. (2023). Nature/Culture Dichotomy and the Anthropocentrism: Philosophical Issues of the Ontological Turn. Comechingonia. Revista De Arqueología, 27(3), 9–23. https://doi.org/10.37603/2250.7728.v27.n3.39989
Section
Dossier Interdisciplinary perspectives of the Ontological Turn

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