The 'Natural' is not founded on any code program system or design from which the uniqueness
and the strivings of those beings who belong to it can be deduced and explained. Nature is no
artifact rather it is the opposite of all that is artificial. The Natural reveals itself in
the network of differences that exist between natural species and the beings that compose them.
The Natural is that which reveals itself from itself and orients itself towards something more
than it is. As such and owing to our ability to understand and to a certain extent influence
the behavior of all natural beings nature grounds that obligation we all as human beings have
toward species and individuals. While we are the only beings who are capable of realizing and
making good on this responsibility we while vouchsafing the difference that comprises our own
species integrate ourselves with the totality of nature. This is the departure point of an
'integrative bioethics' that understands itself decisively as philosophy. It stresses not only
the critical treatment of social-cultural political historico-philosophical and general
ethical questions but is also obliged to consider those thematic corner stones which on first
glance seem little within if not entirely without the providence of bioethics. It is from
this vantage point that integrative bioethics can find its rightful place in the opening
considerations of systems theory anthropology ethics and natural philosophy. Such an endeavor
can be actualized fully only in an interdisciplinary and intercultural context. It is for this
reason that the present volume has collected critical contributions that are capable of
inspiring this ambition.
