Press release
Ecological Innovation: Biomimicry as a New Way of Thinking and Acting Ecologically
Vincent Blok and Bart Gremmen published a paper in which they critically reflect on the concept of biomimicry. On the basis of an analysis of the concept of biomimicry in the literature and its philosophical origin, we distinguish between a strong and a weaker concept of biomimicry.
The strength of the strong concept of biomimicry is that nature is seen as a measure by which to judge the ethical rightness of our technological innovations, but its weakness is found in questionable presuppositions. These presuppositions are addressed by the weaker concept of biomimicry, but at the price that it is no longer possible to distinguish between exploitative and ecological types of technological
innovations. We compare both concepts of biomimicry by critically reflecting on four dimensions of the concept of biomimicry: mimesis, technology, nature, and ethics.
This is one of the first philosophical reflections on the concept of biomimicry as a more ecological way of technology development and innovation.
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