Spyridon Koutroufinis

Cassirer’s philosophy of symbols is applied to Uexküll’s concept of “Umwelt” (meaningful environment). I argue that the vast domain of human symbolism extends the human Umwelt far beyond the Umwelts of animal species. We humans live and act in many intersecting symbolic worlds, one of the most important of which is our ethical Umwelt. I claim that against the background of ecological disaster and the uncontrolled accelerating incursion of our financial institutions and biotechnological industry into planetary ecology, the term “Umwelt” can no longer simply mean the part of our surroundings that is meaningful to us. Given the current severe ecological crisis, Cassirer’s idea of an “ethical Umwelt” must also be expanded, and an ethical imperative must be integrated into our understanding of “environment.” In other words, for us today the meaning of the term “Umwelt” or “meaningful environment” should be synonymous with “the living world to be saved” or “sacred environment.”

Open peer commentary on the article “Towards a PL-Metaphysics of Perception: In Search of the Metaphysical Roots of Constructivism” by Konrad Werner. Upshot: My commentary has three aims. Firstly, to provide additional support to Konrad Werner’s correct insight that radical constructivism is based on a radical distinction between experienced reality and ontological reality. This is a strong metaphysical statement. Secondly, that radical constructivism is implicitly rooted in Cartesian ontological dualism. Thirdly, that Whitehead’s process ontology provides a fruitful foundation for Werner’s thesis that perceptions are metaphysically significant

Gegenstand dieser Untersuchung ist die Relevanz und Notwendigkeit eines prozesstheoretischen Verstandnisses des onto- und embryogenetischen Werdens von Organismen. Zuerst werden die Grenzen der modernen systemtheoretischen Reduktion des Organismus auf selbstorganisierte physikochemische Systeme aufgezeigt. Im zweiten Schritt werden, ausgehend von den Prozessontologien von A. N. Whitehead und H. Bergson, alternative Betrachtungen von Onto- und Embryogenese eingefuhrt. Abschliessend wird eine neue Prozessphilosophie skizziert, in welche Ontologien beider Denker integriert werden.