Distortion of Nature's Image

Damian Gerber is Lecturer at the University of Queensland and the Australian Catholic University.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Ecology and Critical TheoryOn Some Limitations of Contemporary Nature OntologiesReification and the Historical Context of Nature PhilosophyThe Dialectic of the Nature-ConceptThe Concept of Dialectical Naturalism1. Anti-Naturalism, the Bourgeois Enlightenment, and the Modern Origins of a Dialectical NaturalismThe Becoming of NatureEpistemology and the Bourgeois Image of NatureThe Kantian "Block" and the Distancing of Reason from NatureAn Alternative Perspective on Kant: Schiller’s Aesthetic LettersFichte’s Nature-Concept as the Non-Ego"The Struggle of Spirit with Itself "Hegel’s Critique of the Concept of Natural LawThe Representation of Nature as ReificationHegel’s Doctrine of the NotionThe Anti-Naturalism of "Spirit" and the Limits of Hegel’s IdealismFeuerbachian Interlude2. Nature in Marx and AnarchismMarx and the Historicization of NatureThe Younger Marx’s NaturalismThe Concept of Nature in Marx’s Middle Period and the Ethical Dimension of Marx’s Anti-NaturalismBeyond the Limits of Marx’s Nineteenth CenturyPost-Proudhonian Anarchism and the Persistence of Mythopoeic NaturalismNature Against Itself: The Contradictions of Bakunin’s "Natural Human Society"The Ambiguities of Kropotkin’s Concept of "Anarchist Morality"Digression: On the Historical Scars of Nature PhilosophyThe Self-Contradictory Historicism of Kropotkin’s "Mutual Aid" ThesisNaturalism as PoliticsThe Determinate Negation of Kropotkin’s Theory of SocietyThe Necessity of a Dialectical Naturalism3. Recovering a Dialectical NaturalismThe Basis of a Dialectical NaturalismPrecursory Models of Dialectical NaturalismBloch’s Notion of "Technological Contact"Murray Bookchin’s Social EcologyThe Nature-Concept and the Anthropology of HierarchyToward a Communalist Image of NatureEpilogueAppendixTheses on CommunalismNotes

"This book is provocative and inspiring in that it opens spaces for social hope by calling for changes to our basic conceptions of democratic society, selfhood, and nature." — CHOICE"There are very few studies that bring anarchism into conversation with an ecological focus. Gerber's book does this in extraordinary form, offering a critical but balanced overview." — Simon Springer, author of The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation