The Labyrinth of Technology and the Return to Nature: Vladimir Bibikhin’s Lectures “The Woods” in the Context of Philosophical Posthumanism

Abstract

The article considers the philosophy of nature, presented in the lecture course The Woods (hyle) by Vladimir Bibikhin, in the context of posthumanist philoso­phy as well as contemporary criticism of the technical exploitation of nature. The Woods is analyzed as the implementation of the strategy of “return to na­ture”, which is outlined by Bibikhin in Philosophy and Technology as an alterna­tive to the “labyrinth of technology” and “human imperialism”. That fact indi­cates the connection of The Woods with philosophy of technology. The main themes of the The Woods are highlighted, and the concepts of amechania and
automaton are analyzed as the key ones for existential and theoretical dimen­sions of the course. These concepts, introduced in the course Reading Philoso­phy as human existentials, in the The Woods Bibikhin uses to describe the onto­logical categories of nature. Such a double meaning becomes possible due to Bibikhin’s following Heidegger’s idea of being-in-the-world, in which our exi­stence and the world are understood through a hermeneutic circle. At the same time, the difference between Bibikhin’s approach and Heidegger’s one is exam­ined. Furthermore, the author analyzed the similarities and differences between The Woods and philosophical posthumanism and then formulates the conceptual consequences of considering The Woods in the context of posthumanist studies.