Andrea Gentili
Università di Padova
andrea.gentili.2@phd.unipd.it
– The Transcendental Biology of Jakob von Uexküll: Environment, Subjectivation, and Relationality
Citation standard
GENTILI, Andrea. The Transcendental Biology of Jakob von Uexküll: Environment, Subjectivation, and Relationality. Laboratorio dell’ISPF. 2025, vol. XXII [11] . DOI: 10.12862/Lab25GNN.
Online: 31.12.2025
Abstract
The article aims to reconstruct the core of Jacob von Uexküll’s scientific project by placing it within the history of transcendental philosophy. Uexküll’s fundamental position is thus examined through three guiding theses. The first concerns the subjectivity of the animal and the constitution of its experience in a Kantian sense. The second addresses the question of relation, and namely how Uexküll constructs that experience ab initio through a continuous formative exchange between the animal and its Umwelt. The final question seeks to justify the very possibility of this relation by introducing a principle that is not itself relational, yet architecturally overarching with respect to individual interactions. This foundational element is Nature itself as an idea, ensuring the harmony of the relations between organisms and their environments, continually generating and aligning them without recourse to any transcendent solution. From this reconstruction, Uexküll’s work can be critically reassessed and situated as a transcendental philosophy of biology, whose implications for contemporary ecological thought remain far from exhausted.
Keywords
Ecology; Environment; Theoretical biology; Transcendental philosophy; Umwelt
Sommario
[La biologia trascendentale di Jakob von Uexküll: ambiente, soggettivazione e relazionalità]. L’articolo ricostruisce il nucleo del progetto scientifico di Jakob von Uexküll collocandolo nella storia della filosofia trascendentale. La sua posizione viene esaminata attraverso tre tesi. La prima riguarda la soggettività animale e la costituzione della sua esperienza specifica. La seconda affronta la relazione come scambio formativo continuo tra animale e ambiente (Umwelt). La terza giustifica la possibilità stessa di tale relazione introducendo un principio non relazionale ma sovraordinato: la Natura come idea, garante dell’armonia a priori tra organismi e ambienti, che le genera e coordina senza ricorrere al trascendente. Questa ricostruzione permette di rivalutare criticamente l’opera di Uexküll come biologia trascendentale, generando implicazioni rilevanti anche per il pensiero ecologico contemporaneo.
Parole chiave
Ambiente; Biologia teoretica; Ecologia; Filosofia trascendentale; Umwelt