Problematizing Nature: A Foucault Against the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT: As this article intends to argue, the Foucauldian critical method of problematization is a promising approach to do critical philosophy after and following Foucault in times of the so-called 'Anthropocene.' Despite contrary claims, Foucault's analysis and critique of biopolitical government still have tremendous contemporary critical value and can be applied to questions of human-nature relations, and particularly the field of academic ecology. Thus, Foucauldian critique is on par with the contemporary predicament of ecological crises and can contribute to its critical and urgently necessary analysis in important regards that go beyond criticism for its own sake. In order to show this, I will first present the approach of problematization as a mode of critical inquiry beyond constructivism and realism. Second, I will revise Foucault's concept of biopolitical governmentality to open it for its application to the more-than-human complex of ecology. Based on this, I will third and finally outline the problematization of the ecosystem concept to demonstrate what a problematization of nature after and following Foucault could look like.