Abstract: Towards another care for nature : Dreaming of water, imagining the vortex.
The point of departure of this article is the idea that to “care for nature and people” we cannot remain focused solely on the concept of “care”, for we must also rethink the common ground which links humans and nature. To this end, the article draws on the analyses of water as “dream material” put forward by Gaston Bachelard and Ivan Illich, in order to concentrate, thereafter, on the basic image of nature (as physis) proposed by Edgar Morin : the vortex (tourbillon). This image of nature as a “self-producing” vortex can be found in the work of two important thinkers of ecology. Aldo Leopold, the father of environmental ethics, develops the image of the earth as a “round river” and of man as its navigator. And Janine Benyus, the principal theorist of biomimicry, argues that we must imitate nature’s way of doing things by integrating our deeds and actions within its vortical current. The principal conclusion of the article is that “caring for nature and people” consists in “letting be” the autos of self-producing beings.
