An enquiry into the ontological and logical foundations of sustainability: Toward a conceptual integration of the interface 'Nature/Humanity'

Abstract

Non-technical summary Implementing the logical and ontological principles (dualism, mechanicism, reductionism, law of excluded middle, etc.) of modernity has brought forth an unsustainable world. An overcoming of these principles is proposed by mesology (Umweltlehre, fûdoron), centring on the concept of trajection and the existential operator as (als, en tant que). Technical summary The modern-classical Western paradigm (MCWP), ontologically founded on dualism and logically on the law of excluded middle, has entailed modernity and industrialization. It has come to a dead end not only in biological terms (those of the Sixth Extinction), but also morally by decomposing the social link, and aesthetically by wreaking havoc on the landscape. In a word, the MCWP has decosmized human existence. For recosmizing ourselves, technical recipes will not suffice. We need to found anew, both ontologically and logically, our way of being and thinking. That is the aim of mesology (Umweltlehre, fûdoron), which proposes a set of ontological and logical principles enabling us to overcome the MCWP, centring on the concept of trajection and the existential operator as (als, en tant que).