Abstract

The philosophical bases underlying methodological and decision-making processes for environmental issues are rarely questioned, and yet have important consequences. What commonly results is that first order solutions are technical ways of addressing problems which limit human relation to nature. Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology makes a distinction between “thatness” and “whatness.”“What a thing is” is depicted by modern science with “being as continual presence.” “That a thing is” refers to nature’s capacity for disclosure and withdrawal, that being is both “presence and absence.” This essay evaluates thepragmatic prospects of heightening an approach on the “thatness” of nature.