Music:

Havgaver (2025)

Composed and improvised by Anja Lauvdal

Performed by Anja Lauvdal

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This talk draws a distinction between two concepts: recognition and acknowledgement. I use both terms in a technical sense that is related to, but not identical with, their everyday meanings.

By recognition I mean a form of affirmation that presupposes reciprocity and symmetry. To recognize another being, in this sense, is to recognize them as capable of recognizing you in return. Recognition therefore presupposes a certain degree of shared capacities between the participants in the relation.

Acknowledgement, by contrast, refers to a form of affirmation that does not require reciprocity. One party may acknowledge the other without being acknowledged in return. Such relations are asymmetrical, and the relevant capacities may be unevenly distributed or even absent on one side. Yet something is nevertheless present in the other that calls for acknowledgement: at minimum a form of activity or difference that makes a difference in the world.

My topic is the possibility of recognition or acknowledgement in relation to what I call nonhuman nature – species and organisms other than humans, as well as landscapes largely shaped by them. Can humans recognize nonhuman nature? Or can we rather acknowledge it?

These questions arise at the intersection of environmental philosophy and social philosophy. Environmental ethics has often argued that a non-dominant relationship to nature requires recognizing the intrinsic value of nonhuman beings. Yet this notion often appears as little more than an unsupported intuition. Recognition theory, developed in the tradition of Hegel, offers a powerful account of how we come to understand the value of others and why we are motivated to respect it. However, in its classical formulations recognition is restricted to relations between humans.

I suggest that this limitation points toward the need for another concept: acknowledgement. Drawing on environmental philosophy and thinkers such as Val Plumwood, I argue that acknowledgement may help articulate meaningful relations between humans and nonhuman nature without presupposing reciprocity. A key element of such acknowledgement may be wonder, understood as a boundary experience that makes us aware of the limits of what we can understand and recognize in our own terms, while reminding us that something nevertheless exists beyond those limits and may call for respect.

Sigurd Hverven holds a PhD in philosophy from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and works as a researcher in ethics, environmental philosophy, and ecotheology at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo.

His work spans environmental ethics, philosophy of nature, the history of philosophy, political philosophy, and the philosophy of childhood. Alongside his academic research, he has extensive experience communicating philosophy to wider audiences through radio, newspapers, short films, lectures, panel discussions, and school visits.

He is the author of four books: Naturfilosofi (2018), Ville verdier: Naturfilosofi i menneskets tidsalder (2023), Hegel: En ganske enkel bok om en vanskelig filosof (2024) and Så setter vi oss på huk: Filosofi på høyde med barn (2025).

He received the Skjervheim Prize in 2024, and his book on Hegel was awarded the Norwegian Critics’ Prize the same year. He has also been named one of Norway’s ten best writers under 35 by Morgenbladet and the Norwegian Festival of Literature.

https://www.tf.uio.no/english/people/aca/sigurdhv/