REFLECTIONS ON THE CONCEPT OF NATURE: THEORETICAL-PHILOSOPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

This theoretical consideration aims to review the concepts given to nature, among different cultures and throughout long periods of history (from Ancient History to Modern History), emphasize the thoughts of Max Horkheimer, who undertook strong critics about the modern project of domination of nature. Thus, the philosophical thought present from the Ancient History has been seen as a guide to an utilitarian reason, which puts the human beings in a relation of superiority against the other living creatures, which results in an ample domination and supremacy over the nature. As a consequence, it has been verified that this modern rationality privileges the scientific-technical progress and considers it as the reason to be of the human nature, through ideological manipulation. So, philosophy appears as a way to not only criticize and question this rationality, but also to transcend it, making it possible to reestablish it and propose a new meaning to the relation between nature and mankind.