Abstract

This article presents a view of European cultureEuropean culture as defined by three constants, and then proceeds to articulate the role of natureNature in culture. This view of the relation of culture and natureNature is then applied to the epochal event of the European EnlightenmentEnlightenment. Due to the EnlightenmentEnlightenment, which on the surface is a commitment to Reason, the system of values is changed. NatureNature becomes not a goal, but is reduced to a means. This crucial change can be seen from the perspective of crime and punishment, as a series of unintended ecological catastrophes. On this background there arises an idea of ecological aestheticsEcological aesthetics, which will correct the course of developmentDevelopment and show an exit from the crises of culture.