Heinrich Hort -
Existential Sustainability & Philosophical Praxis
Hi, my name is Heinrich and I am a philosophical researcher and ecological practitioner currently based in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica. My work explores the intersections of philosophy, ecology, cultivation, labor, and everyday life through both theoretical inquiry and hands-on experimentation.My research and practical work revolve around what I refer to as "Negative Existential Sustainability" - a philosophical approach to conceiving nature, agroecological practice, and sustainable living beyond narratives of harmony, balance, and permanence. Drawing on psychoanalysis and existential philosophy, I critically engage with contemporary sustainability and agroecological frameworks that often idealize “nature” as a coherent and redeeming order, while overlooking contradiction, entropy, destructiveness, and lack as fundamental dimensions of both human subjectivity and ecological processes themselves.Rather than approaching sustainability as a project of restoring harmony or saving the world, I am interested in exploring how humans exist and participate within ecological realities marked by instability, tension, temporality, and continuous transformation. My work reflects on cultivation, ecology, and everyday life without relying on fantasies of purity, permanence, or total control. Instead, it attempts to open spaces for thinking and living within the contradictions and unpredictability of the living world itself.Alongside philosophical research, I investigate these questions through hands-on experimentation and everyday practice while developing a sustainable off-grid homestead. My practical explorations include fermentation, sourdough cultivation, soil-building, perennial plant systems, food forests, and interrelational approaches to living and cultivation. These practices are not understood as expressions of harmony with nature, but as engagements with complex ecological and metabolic processes shaped by transformation, decay, consumption, entropic change, and death.I studied Philosophy (BA) at the Global Center for Advanced Studies, where I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree focused on these themes. I also studied existential therapy at Oxford University and previously worked as a workers’ union leader, experiences that continue to influence my perspectives on existence, labor, ecology, and socio-political life. Beyond philosophy and ecological practice, I enjoy music and spending time with cats.