Abstract

This chapter explores the role of philosophy in the understanding of the order of nature. The discussion is limited to the West because it was here that a rebellion took place against traditional philosophy, which had remained inalienably linked to religion everywhere and in all stages of premodern history save for a brief period in Greco-Roman antiquity. This rebellion resulted in a new chapter in the history of Western philosophy wherein much of philosophy set itself against the very principles of religion and even wisdom. Only in the West did a philosophy develop that was not only no longer the love of wisdom but went so far as to deny the very category of wisdom as a legitimate form of knowledge. The full grasp of the current religious and also anti-religious understanding of the order of nature and its consequences for the environmental crisis cannot be achieved without dealing, in addition to religion, with both Western philosophy and science.