L’Enlivenment d’Andreas Weber comme réponse à la maltraitance du vivant et à l’impasse de l’anthropocène
Olivier Hanse
Recherches Germaniques August 6, 2025 DOI: 10.4000/147vg (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Anthropocene Life sciences Panpsychism Vitality Enlightenment criticism Modern science |
| Key points | Argues that a paradigm shift called "Enlivenment," grounded in recent life sciences, can replace a destructive Cartesian logic and foster an ethics of reciprocity with all living beings. |
Abstract
When Andreas Weber addresses the issue of the mistreatment of living beings, he analyses the traumas he experienced during his own biology studies, as well as the botanical blindness he sensed in the population during the historic drought in 2018 and the slaughter of 17 million minks in Denmark during the coronavirus pandemic. The philosopher is convinced that it is not important to develop new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in this day and age. Instead, he points the finger at a destructive logic inherited from Descartes, modern science and Darwinian economic liberalism, and recognizes in the recent revolution in life sciences a way to transcend this logic. He proposes a paradigm shift, called Enlivenment, which valorizes immersion in life and scientific empathy, thus preparing the emergence of a new ethics of reciprocity and sharing that embraces all living beings.