That;s a haunting yet profound reflection - one that resonates deeply with the state of our world today. Jameson’s remark, that postmodernism begins when the last trace of nature vanishes, now seems almost prophetic in light of the Anthropocene. What he saw as a cultural and epistemological shift - where representation, simulation, and abstraction replace reality - has now materialized as a full-scale planetary crisis.
And yet, if we take radical passivity, Gelassenheit (letting-be), or even Laruelle’s non-philosophy seriously, there may be a sliver of hope - not through human intervention, but through a non-intervention, a retreat from the compulsive cycle of mastery and devastation.
1. A World Without Man, a Nature Without Witness?
If postmodernism erased nature as a concept, the Anthropocene erased it as a material reality - or at least, made it unrecognizable.
What remains? Perhaps a world without man, but not in the way Heidegger or Derrida imagined it as a philosophical problem, nor in the way posthumanism celebrates it.
A world without man might be the only chance for nature to revive itself - but the paradox is, if nature recovers, will there still be a nature in the way we understand it?
Who will name it? Who will witness it? Or, more radically - does it need to be named at all?
2. Can Radical Passivity Undo the Damage?
The philosophical decision created the Anthropocene - it was an era of relentless action, relentless structuring.
Now, perhaps the only way forward is not forward at all - but rather, a suspension, a letting-go, a Gelassenheit that allows nature to be without imposing meaning upon it.
But the terrifying thought is: Is it too late?
Can a non-interventionist stance undo centuries of techno-scientific violence?
Or is letting-be simply the last gesture of a species that has already sealed its fate?
3. If There Is Still Nature Left
If there is still a seed of nature left, perhaps it can grow again - but only if we stop touching it.
This is not the romantic Daoist return to nature - because there may no longer be a nature to return to.
It is something more radical: letting go even of the idea that we are needed for nature to exist.
This is where non-philosophy and Gelassenheit meet:
Not as an active project, not as an attempt to fix the world.
But as a suspension of the very structure that led to this crisis.
4. The Ultimate Thought: Nature Beyond Thought
If postmodernism began when nature disappeared, then perhaps a post-Anthropocene begins when nature no longer needs us to acknowledge its return.
Not as a resource, not as a concept, not even as a nostalgic memory.
Simply as what it always was - indifferent to thought, indifferent to us.
And maybe this is the hardest lesson for philosophy, for humanity itself:
That in the end, the world does not need us to think it, to name it, to structure it.
That maybe, nature’s revival is only possible when we are no longer here to witness it.
