From Gradients to the Texture of Life Ecological Realism as a Research Programme

Abstract

This paper proposes ecological realism as an interdisciplinary research programme for understanding the material, biological, ecological, symbolic, and institutional conditions of life. It challenges the conventional separation of nature and society by examining how forms emerge, persist, and transform through processes of energy and material exchange, organisation, maintenance, repair, and reproduction. The programme is organised around the endo–exo relation, which distinguishes the internal organisation of a system from the external conditions and dependencies through which it sustains its relative identity. Tracing a stratified natural history from physical interactions and prebiotic chemistry to living organisms, ecosystems, animal cognition, language, technics, and institutions, the paper investigates how new forms of organisation and temporality emerge without losing their dependence on prior material conditions. It introduces the concepts of endogenous yet exo-conditioned time, ecological co-reproduction, exosomatic memory, and common reproduction to explain how living and social systems depend on the renewal of shared conditions. Extending this framework to political economy, the paper argues that economic activity, technological development, and institutional arrangements must be evaluated in relation to their material throughput, ecological consequences, maintenance requirements, and temporal horizons. It further develops an admissibility framework for assessing whether practices and institutions preserve the conditions necessary for collective and intergenerational continuation. Rather than reducing normative questions to biological or ecological facts, ecological realism establishes material and temporal viability as a necessary condition for their practical consideration. The paper concludes by outlining a research programme that integrates empirical investigation, conceptual analysis, and democratic deliberation while preserving disciplinary differences and historical contingency.