Dismantling the abyss between Subject and Nature. On the denaturing misdirection of subjectivity

Abstract

In this work we reflect on some assumptions underlying the concept of subject that informs modern law, a category that, following Valeria Berros, we judge to be in crisis. A critique of Philippe Descola’s interpretation of the La Plata Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Freudian notion of the biological wound of human narcissism, lead us to point out the anti-materialist features of the metaphysics of modern subjectivity, which continue to this day. Then, concentrating on the notion of “human dignity”, we analyze the denial of nature that the conception of the subject entails in German idealism. Finally, we propose to think about ways of recognizing the rights of nature beyond the category of subject, although without abandoning its current potential or renouncing the project of its expansion, based on the idea of respect and an expanded communicative ethic.