Inimese ja looduse suhte mõtestamine esseistikas. Funktsionaalne vaade eesti esseistikale

The problem of how knowledge becomes understanding of complex phenomena, such as social-ecological systems, is of both theoretical and applied interest. This article is built on the premise that published essays serve as an archive of these cognitive processes. An important reason is that essay-writing is practised across different cultural systems (including scientists), providing potential grounds for cultural exchange. I conduct a functional analysis of 108 essays, selected as a stratified sample from 36 Estonian authors representing three groups (literature; science; other) since the 20th century. The main criteria were that (i) each essay explores the relationship between humans (societies) and the nature, along with the interactions between both systems; and (ii) the author has at least three such essays (if more, three were chosen to reflect a diversity of thought). The presence of texts by all three groups of authors reveals three periods of heightened discourse on human-nature relationships: 1967–1980, 1996–2003, and from 2017 onwards. Structurally, ¾ of the essays represent isolated lines of thought (only 10% form coherent programs), where the authors elaborate on their own ideas while referencing mainly distant (foreign) authors. Direct reference to other Estonian authors or building on one’s own prior work is rare. Thus, essays mostly function as “idea laboratories”, with limited trans-disciplinary co-creation of understanding. Furthermore, while readily incorporating new knowledge and ideas, the essays reveal a relatively stable mixture of three main ethical attitudes towards nature throughout their history. By distinguishing the key components of social-ecological complexity (Fig. 2), a “frame text” was defined as its most complete (or, secondarily, the most concise) representation. Jaan Kaplinski’s “Ecology and Economics” (1972/1996) and Hando Runnel’s “Caretakers and Saviours” (1988) can be seen as frame texts among Estonian essays on human-nature relationships.