Some Preliminary Notes on the Environmental Humanities as a Possible Shift in the Philosophy of Education

From the position of a historian of philosophy, with a particular emphasis on phenomenology and philosophy of education, I would like to outline some preliminary thoughts on the emerging field of Environmental Humanities. Its emergence can be attributed to the persisting differences between real politics, economics, and social development strategies on the one hand and the factual scientific knowledge of climate change and the effects of human activities on the environment on the other hand. The question is whether the newly promoted inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation between the natural sciences, technical sciences, and humanities, can bring about a real change in human behavior and humans relationship to the world. Eugen Fink reflected this need in his cosmological philosophy (of education) by redefining the human being as ens cosmologicum, which could be useful in environmental humanities.