Abstract
By examining the Husserlian concept of nature, the following ideas can be individuated: (I) an empirical nature; (II.a) a first material nature and (II.b) a second spiritual nature; (III) a primordial nature. According to (III), subjectivity shows itself through the corporeality of the subject and not through the intellect of an ego-cogito. Thanks to this new meaning of nature, the phenomenological structure of consciousness can be expanded into a deeper one in which the human subject is no longer regarded as the fundamental dimension of subjectivity. Accordingly, a wider idea of subjectivity could be understood, including other types of subjects. Thus, ethics is not exclusively a human field.
This new perspective appears similar to the Māori culture, in which humans are one with the natural world. All elements of the universe are members of the same whakapapa (genealogy) as different existing subjects. Thereby, the reciprocity of respect and caring is central in te ao Māori (Māori world), from whenua (land) and maunga (mountains) to wai (water), ngāi tipu (flora) and ngāi kīrehe (fauna).
A phenomenological analysis of the approach of Māori people to nature shows a structural collectivity in nature, giving the latter the new meaning of a 'natural collectivity'.