The Being of Nature: Dewey, Buchler, and the Prospect for an Eco-Ontology

A philosophy of Nature is different from the narrower outlook of "naturalistic metaphysics." John Dewey and Justus Buchler provide broad, rich philosophies of Nature, similar yet challengingly different. Dewey's existential-experiential approach presents an emergentist naturalism of situations. Buchler's categorial-ordinal approach presents an "ordinal naturalism" based on the idea of a "natural complex." Are these positions mutually supportive? Unlike Dewey, Buchler offers a systematic approach with an original, carefully defined terminology. But certain conceptual problems are discerned in Buchler's position that require Dewey's more robust ideas of existence, experience, and situation. Both positions offer prospects for an ecological ontology, especially Buchler's reworking of Spinoza's ideas of natura naturans and natura naturata. The complex history of these terms is discussed in a note at the end.