An Interview with Gernot Böhme

Gernot Böhme (1937- ) is a well-known contemporary German philosopher whose research interests cover classical philosophy, philosophy of science, theory of time, natural philosophy, philosophy of technical civilization, philosophical anthropology, ethics and aesthetics. From 1977 to 2002 he was Professor of Philosophy at Technical University of Darmstadt. Since 2005 he has been director of the Institute for Practical Philosophy (IPPH) in Darmstadt. Beginning in the late 1980s, Böhme developed the theory “ecological aesthetics of nature” (Ökologische Naturästhetik), which has already had a wide influence on current research in German-speaking countries. His major works in this area are (a) Für eine ökologische Naturästhetik (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1989); (b) Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1995); (c) Die Natur vor uns. Naturphilosophie in pragmatischer Hinsicht (Kusterdingen: SFG Servicecenter, 2002); (d) Leibsein als Aufgabe. Leibphilosophie in pragmatischer Hinsicht (Kusterdingen: SFG Servicecenter, 2003). As a response to the current environmental debate, Böhme's ecological aesthetics of nature is based on a general theory of perception (Allgemeine Wahrnehmungslehre). He emphasizes the concrete human bodily experience in a special environment and gives priority to the original coexistent relationship between human and nature. With this theory, Böhme attempts to underline the idea that humans are a part of nature. He argues that we should abandon modern practices that tend to control and exploit the resources of nature and instead should actively promote the integration of human and ecological elements. On January 28th 2014, Professor Böhme gave a presentation at the School of Arts and Design in Kassel (Kunsthochschule Kassel). On this occasion Dr. Zhuofei Wang interviewed him about the central ideas in his ecological aesthetics of nature. (Editorial note: Since little of Böhme's work is available in English, Contemporary Aesthetics encouraged Dr. Wang's proposal to interview Professor Böhme in order to provide scholars outside German-speaking countries an overview of Böhme's ideas.