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Does Eco-Politics Exist and Does it Have Need of a Philosophy? 115
subjection of an environment that is distinguished from and set against
man to the interests of man, whatever those may be. Man, however, has
no “environment”. He has a world, the world of language and reason,
of which he is at once creator and creation. Ihis world is not merely an
inseparable part of mans being, but also fully and clearly belongs to
him: he is responsible for it. (Ihis will be discussed in more detail in
the second chapter of the book)
Responsible care or practical use? These are two mutually exclusive
descriptions of our relation to the world. Behind them lie two types of
understanding of knowledge itself. Is knowledge power, as proclaimed
by the modernity which celebrated its triumph over nature, following
Francis Bacon? Or is it the exact opposite of power: a sympathetic
participation in the lives of others? Whether this question is a more
epistemological or a fundamentally ethical one is itself the subject of
debate. However, without resolving it we cannot even begin to take
account of our opportunities and tasks. How can we know what truth
is if we have realised that it is precisely the knowledge that we relied on
which has let us down? On what basis, then, can we decide what to do,
where to seek the way out of the crisis of our civilisation and what future
we can hope for ourselves?
What can I know — if the trust in knowledge has been lost? What
should I do— and why me? What can I hope for — from politics? The three
questions which Immanuel Kant sought at the end of the 18" century
to answer once and for all, relying on the universal laws of the right use
of reason, have remained questions. They gain new meaning in our
times. I do not believe that I have found an answer to any of them. My
undertaking promised to be more modest and practical. While I sought
the theoretical foundations of ecopolitics, I repeatedly came up against
the fundamental philosophical questions of modernity — the chapter
titles, with some self-irony, allude to this.
May it serve as my excuse that the task, the execution of which
exceeds my capacity, is not of my choosing. The task found me, who
wished to occupy himself with something quite different, but who was
born in the wrong era. Or the contrary. As Simone Weil noted during
the darkest hours of World War II, “You could not be born at a better
period than the present, when we have lost everything”.
When everything goes dark, we become aware of even the smallest
ray of light.