'Doğayı’ kurtarmak için onu öldür: Rousseaucu ikilem ve ekolojik kuram

Year 2025, Volume: 52 Issue: 1, 29 - 44, 30.06.2025

Ömür Birler

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’nun düşüncesi ile ekolojik kuram arasındaki karmaşık ilişkiyi, felsefesinin etrafında döndüğü eksen olan yabancılaşma kavramını öne çıkararak çözümlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Ekoloji literatürünün büyük bir kısmı, Rousseau’nun araçsal akılcılığa karşı çıkışı, merhamet vurgusu ve toprak etiğine verdiği destek gibi unsurlarda kendini gösteren doğaya yönelik ahlaki saygısını ön plana çıkarmaktadır. Ancak bu tür yorumlar, onun ahlaki yazılarını çoğu zaman siyasi ve ekonomik felsefesinin daha geniş bağlamından yalıtarak ele alır. Bu durum, Rousseau’nun düşüncesine içkin olan paradoksların gözden kaçırılması riskini doğurmaktadır. Bu çalışma, doğal yabancılaşmadan siyasal yabancılaşmaya geçiş sürecini takip ederek, Rousseau’nun insanlığın doğadan kopuşuna yönelik çözümünün aslında daha derin bir yabancılaşmayı (biçimsel, kasıtlı ve kurumsallaşmış) içerdiğini öne sürmektedir. Her ne kadar bu ikinci yabancılaşma özgürlük ya da erdemin yeniden inşasını mümkün kılsa da bunu ancak insanlık ile doğa arasındaki organik bağın koparılması pahasına gerçekleştirir. Sonuç olarak, Rousseau doğa ile ahlaki bir birlik kurma gerekliliği ile vatandaşlık yaşamının siyasal zorunlulukları arasında derin ve çözümlenmemiş bir gerilim ortaya koyar.

Keywords

Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Ekolojik kuram , Yabancılaşma , Doğa

Kill ‘nature’ in order to save it: The Rousseauian dichotomy and ecological theory

Abstract

This study seeks to unravel the intricate relationship between Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thought and ecological theory by foregrounding the concept of alienation as the central axis around which his philosophy turns. While much of the ecological literature emphasizes Rousseau’s moral reverence for nature—manifest in his opposition to instrumental rationality, his emphasis on pity, and his advocacy of a land ethic—such interpretations often isolate his moral writings from the broader context of his political and economic philosophy. In doing so, they risk overlooking the inherent paradoxes embedded in Rousseau’s work. By tracing the transition from natural to political alienation, this study argues that Rousseau’s remedy to humanity’s estrangement from nature involves an even deeper alienation—one that is formal, intentional, and institutionalized. This second alienation may indeed enable the reconstitution of freedom or virtue, but only at the cost of severing the organic bond between humankind and the natural world. Consequently, Rousseau presents a profound and unresolved tension between the moral necessity of unity with nature and the political imperatives of civic life.

Keywords

Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Ecological Theory , Alienation , Nature

Ethical Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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