The Department of Human Sciences at the University of Verona hosted an International Workshop, funded by the European Union, on philosophical issues of particularity and diversity in first and second nature.
Held on September 4, 2025, the event was part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project ReNa – Collective Responsibility towards Nature and Future Generations, conducted by Giulia Battistoni from the Department of Human Sciences at the University of Verona, under the supervision of Giorgio Erle from the same department. Organized by Giulia Battistoni, Giorgio Erle, and Laura Anna Macor, it was supported by the Center Ricerche di Gnoseologia e Metafisica, with the patronage of the following national and international scientific societies: Sociedad Iberoamericana de Estudios Hegelianos, Società Italiana di Filosofia Morale, Società Italiana di Teoria Critica, Hegel Now! International Centre for Philosophical and Artistic Research, Società Italiana di Storia della Filosofia.
In the opening remarks, the organizers stressed the project’s aim of rethinking philosophical categories such as “particularity” and “diversity” to foster a positive relationship between humans and nature, with implications for today’s socio-political and environmental challenges.
In the morning session, Rebecca Stewart-Gray (Oklahoma State University) gave a talk entitled “Einheit fordert zwar die Vernunft, die Natur aber Mannichfaltigkeit”: Schiller on ‘Natur’ and ‘Mannigfaltigkeit’ in the Aesthetic Letters. She examined how Schiller, moving beyond both rigid rationalism and sentimental ethics, develops in the Aesthetic Letters a moral-aesthetic framework that unites reason and nature. She argued that for Schiller, true freedom and morality arise when humans embrace diversity and cultivate a “second nature” through aesthetic experience, thereby allowing unity and plurality to coexist. Lucas Nascimento Machado (University of Verona) presented From the real ground to the determinant form: on the problem of determination in Kant and Hegel. He compared Kant’s and Hegel’s answers to the problem of knowledge, showing how Kant roots determination in the subject’s forms of intuition and understanding – transforming form into matter – while Hegel understands form as self-constituting, generating its own content through negation and thus turning matter into form. Klaus Vieweg (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) spoke on Besonderheit – The Right of the Subject’s Particularity and the Principle of the Civil Society. He showed how Hegel interprets particularity (Besonderheit) in civil society as both a condition of freedom and a source of fragmentation. Particularity is indispensable to modern freedom, but it requires regulation and elevation by the state to overcome its divisive tendencies and ensure that individuality contributes to the ethical whole.
In the afternoon, Giorgio Erle (University of Verona) delivered a lecture entitled Dalla biologia filosofica alla filosofia della natura: un viaggio di ritorno da Jonas a Hegel, exploring the dialogue between Hegel and Hans Jonas on the philosophy of nature. Read together, their approaches highlight the contemporary relevance of conceiving freedom as rooted in natural life rather than opposed to it. Finally, Giulia Battistoni (University of Verona) presented Varietà e natura: tracce di un discorso sulla biodiversità in Hegel e Jonas. She applied Hegel’s and Jonas’s categories to today’s debates on biodiversity, proposing an integrative approach that combines the intrinsic value of life with a modified anthropocentrism that recognizes humanity’s unique moral responsibility. Both talks showed that the philosophy of nature can become a resource for grounding environmental ethics and intergenerational justice.
The discussion was enriched by contributions from the official discussants – Professors Davide Bondì, Gualtiero Lorini, and Alessandro Stavru – as well as an engaged audience of scholars and students. The urgency of rethinking nature and particularity emerged clearly, underscoring the need for approaches that recognize diversity, its limits and its potential.
Below are some photos of the event (by Alessandro Fiore).
Giulia Battistoni
