The physically weaker dominate nature by deliberate adaptation rather than strength

Evidence

The dialectical movement uniting the inorganic components of the environment to the components of the organism is what Hegel calls ‘theoretical’. Every vital mechanism of adaptation is already in itself a certain modality of θεωρε!ν in the double meaning Aristotle emphasizes: to contemplate and to exercise. The living being is at once identical to and different from its non-living origins and surroundings. Because sameness and alterity are related, habit becomes a condition of adaptation in a double sense, being a form of contemplation – absorbing the environment, passively lending itself to what is given – and a kind of exercise, informing and transforming the surroundings, appropriating the given conditions for its organic functions. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 512 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rational self-preservation conquers nature only by imitating nature’s own rigidity — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 63; Adaptation itself is a theoretical activity combining contemplation and exercise — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 512; Nature’s qualities are historical, not fixed, under human mastery — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 825 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Adaptation itself is a theoretical activity combining contemplation and exercise #expands (0.82) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 512