Perceiving environmental unnaturalness

The internship is under to supervision of Christian Lorenzi (LSP) and Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde (IJN) We are seeking a highly skilled M2 student with a strong background in analytic philosophy and a serious interest in environmental philosophy and sciences for an internship on the topic of "Perceiving Environmental Unnaturalness." Internship objective: The primary aim of this internship is to map the dual concepts of "naturalness" and "unnaturalness" as they are discussed in both philosophical and scientific literature. Numerous distinctions arise in this context; for example, "naturalness" is often associated with wildness and contrasted with hemeroby (the degree of human influence on a given environment). However, in this project, we adopt a more specific interpretation of "naturalness": the set of phenomenal and processual expectations associated with a particular natural environment. We are particularly interested in the perceptual, cognitive, and emotional dimensions that emerge when these expectations are not met, which we define as "unnaturalness." The task involves connecting this conceptual mapping, given our specific interpretation, to an analysis of how perception (in a multimodal way), knowledge, and affect contribute to judgments of unnaturalness. This conceptual clarification and analysis will serve as a foundation for designing experimental tests to explore the concept further. The project also aims to link phenomena and processes deemed "unnatural" to foundational concepts in environmental law and ethics. It will examine questions such as: When is unnaturalness considered a form of damage, a harm, or a tort? When is it not? Preparatory Reading: • Siipi, H. (2008). Dimensions of Naturalness. Ethics and the Environment, 71-103. • Deckers, J. (2021). On (Un)naturalness. Environmental Values, 30(3), 297-318.