Management of the natural dimension in man: the path of humanistic autopoiesis

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2022-1-108-125

Management of the natural dimension in man: the path of humanistic autopoiesis

Anton I. Zhelnin
Candidate of Philosophy,
Associate professor of the Department of PhilosophyPerm State University,
15, Bukirev str., Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail: antonzhelnin@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6368-1363
ResearcherID: AAR-2036-2021

The article aims to analyze the process of management of natural dimension in man. It is shown that the possibility of such management follows both from the general way of human existence and from the dialectical subordination of the human (social, cultural) dimension and the natural dimension, according to which the latter is included in the former and dependent on it. On the other hand, there exist limits of this management: not the whole nature in man is socially determined, it preserves wide autonomy, subordination to fundamental natural laws. Interaction between the social and the natural is based on reciprocal co-determination, therefore, when managing his natural dimension, man, according to the feedback principle, de facto influences himself. Thus, the problem of preserving human essence, maintaining its holism becomes essential again. The work is novel in that the management of man’s natural dimension is associated with the phenomenon of autopoiesis: man at a new level realizes this tendency of active «self-creation», which is common to the living. At the same time, it is critically important that it will be autopoiesis with a «human face»: this management must be rationally justified, aimed at actualizing the natural potential already inherent in man. The central question is about the subject of control: in the first approximation, it will be an individual, due to the inalienability of his own vital principle, i.e. it will be a kind of self-management. However, this does not negate the presence of supra-individual subjects that would control such management (realize «management of management»), including its anthropological and social acceptability. The presence of strong legal and moral regulators, taking into account the axiological component, as well as the recognition of the fundamental fact that the management of the natural dimension is not a goal itself but a means for a more complete and comprehensive self-realization of man, only part of his holistic autopoiesis, will allow the latter to maintain humanistic orientation.

Keywords: man, nature, management, autopoiesis, subject, humanism, humanistic autopoiesis, coevolution; co-determination.

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Received: 18.01.2022. Accepted: 02.03.2022

For citation:

Zhelnin A.I. [Management of the natural dimension in man: the path of humanistic autopoiesis]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Filosofia. Psihologia. Sociologia [Perm University Herald. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology], 2022, issue 1, pp. 108–125 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2022-1-108-125