"We are all savages," says Andreas Weber, making it clear that our civilisation has not only colonised the indigenous peoples, but also our own thinking. If we want to make the world a life-giving place again, we should discover the indigenous in ourselves. "Radical democracy", "ethics and morality of commonality", "justice", "ecology of the gift" and "sustainability" – Weber's philosophical plea for an open exchange in a world of reciprocity, which is only just being rediscovered, revolves around these terms: physicists, biologists and humanities scholars are beginning to reconceptualise the holistic cosmos in the face of ecological and social crises and to shed old certainties. Embracing this new world view offers the opportunity to become a living part of a holistic reality and to realise an ecological art of living.
Essay
Andreas Weber is a Berlin-based philosopher, biologist, and writer. He teaches philosophy at Leuphana University, Lüneberg, and the University of Fine Arts, Berlin. Previously published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin: Enlivenment (2016).
