Andreas Weber – författare

A new understanding of the Anthropocene that is based on mutual transformation with nature rather than control over nature.

We have been told that we are living in the Anthropocene, a geological era shaped by humans rather than by nature. In Enlivenment, German philosopher Andreas Weber presents an alternative understanding of our relationship with nature, arguing not that humans control nature but that humans and nature exist in a commons of mutual transformation. There is no nature–human dualism, he contends, because the fundamental dimension of existence is shared in what he calls "aliveness." All subjectivity is intersubjectivity. Self is self-through-other. Seeing all beings in a common household of matter, desire, and imagination, an economy of metabolic and economic transformation, is “enlivenment.” This perspective allows us to move beyond Enlightenment-style thinking that strips material reality of any subjectivity.

To take this step, Weber argues, we need to supplant the concept of techné with the concept of poiesis as the element that brings forth reality. In a world not divided into things and ideas, culture and nature, reality arises from the creation of relationships and continuous fertile transformations; any thinking in terms of relationships comes about as a poetics. The self is always a function of the whole; the whole is equally a function of the individual. Only this integrated freedom allows humanity to reconcile with the natural world.

This first English edition of Enlivenment has been expanded and updated from the German edition.

Nautilus Award Gold Medal Winner, Ecology & Environment  

In Matter and Desire, internationally renowned biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber rewrites ecology as a tender practice of forging relationships, of yearning for connections, and of expressing these desires through our bodies. Being alive is an erotic process—constantly transforming the self through contact with others, desiring ever more life.

In clever and surprising ways, Weber recognizes that love—the impulse to establish connections, to intermingle, to weave our existence poetically together with that of other beings—is a foundational principle of reality. The fact that we disregard this principle lies at the core of a global crisis of meaning that plays out in the avalanche of species loss and in our belief that the world is a dead mechanism controlled through economic efficiency.

Although rooted in scientific observation, Matter and Desire becomes a tender philosophy for the Anthropocene, a “poetic materialism,” that closes the gap between mind and matter. Ultimately, Weber discovers, in order to save life on Earth—and our own meaningful existence as human beings—we must learn to love.

Diese Einführung in die Informatik konzentriert sich insbesondere auf die moderne objektorientierte Softwaretechnik. Die zentralen Konzepte von objektorientierten Programmiersprachen, nämlich Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen, werden dabei nicht nur abstrakt beschrieben und theoretisch begründet, sondern auch mittels UML und Java 2 konkret umgesetzt und intensiv eingeübt.

Am Ende kennt der Leser neben dem klassischen auch den modernen objektorientierten Stoff der Informatik auf dem Niveau des ersten Studienjahres und beherrscht mit Java zudem eine Programmiersprache, die in der breiten Praxis von Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft vielfältige Anwendungen findet.

Die Darstellung wird durch ergänzende Kapitel zu wesentlichen mathematischen Grundlagen und zur Hardware- und Software-Architektur von Computersystemen abgerundet. Ferner ist unter der URL www-sr.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/InfoBuch eine Web-Seite zu diesem Buch eingerichtet worden.