Anthropocene and transhumanism
Augustin Berque
Abstract. Watsuji’s concept of fûdosei 風土性 may be rendered in two ways. As it is generally understood in Japan, it could be translated with countryness : the fact of being proper to a given region or country. In that sense, it seems to concern essentially premodern societies; but as Watsuji himself defined it (“the structural moment of human existence”, ningen sonzai no kôzô keiki 人間存在の構造契機), and as, accordingly, I translated it with mediance, in other words the dynamic coupling of Being and its milieu (fûdo 風土 or kansekai 間世界, not to be confused with the environment, kankyô 環境), this concept is not only homologous to the pairing (Gegengefüge) revealed by Uexküll between the animal and its milieu (Umwelt), but its validity appears to be universal and transhistorical.