Conviviality: our primary connectedness to living beings

In the ecological discourse on nature and the environment, the natural side of humans, which we experience as our own corporeality, plays hardly any role. To address this deficiency, the paper proposes the concept of conviviality. It refers to a primary connection with the living environment, conveyed through our own sense of aliveness and embodiment. The concept encompasses three interconnected aspects: 1) An epistemological aspect, according to which we can only recognize other living beings as such and distinguish them from inanimate things through the experience of our shared bodily existence; 2) A natural-philosophical and ecological aspect, which relates to the fundamental interdependence of all living beings and the interpenetration of life and the environment; 3) An ethical aspect, where our kinship and connection with living beings form the basis for an attitude of care and commitment towards them. The three aspects are based on the same fundamental structure, namely the interdependence of the living, both in subjective, phenomenal terms, and in objective, ecological terms. At the same time, they are grounded in our corporeality, which points to the relational nature of our existence, our life in relationships and in ecological contexts. In this way, the fundamental kinship of our lived bodies with living nature becomes the basis for an ecological ethic.