Rethinking Nature: Essays in Environmental Philosophy

Rethinking Nature brings the voices of leading Continental philosophers into discussion about what is emerging as one of our most pressing and timely concerns--the environmental crisis facing our planet. The essays featured in this volume embrace environmental philosophy in its broadest sense and include topics such as environmental ethics, environmental aesthetics, ontology, theology, gender and the environment, and the role of science and technology in forming knowledge about our world. Here, philosophy goes out into the field and comes back with rich insights and new approaches to environmental problems. This far-reaching and lively volume affords firm ground for thinking about the multiple ways that humans engage nature.

Contributors are David Abram, Edward S. Casey, Daniel Cerezuelle, Ron Cooper, Bruce V. Foltz, Robert Frodeman, Trish Glazebrook, James Hatley, Robert Kirkman, Irene J. Klaver, Alphonso Lingis, Kenneth Maly, Diane Michelfelder, Elaine P. Miller, Robert Mugerauer, Stephen David Ross, John Sallis, Ingrid Leman Stefanovic, Bruce Wilshire, David Wood, and Michael E. Zimmerman.

Bruce V. Foltz is Professor of Philosophy at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has published numerous articles on environmental philosophy and the philosophy of technology.

Robert Frodeman is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of North Texas. He is also Director of the New Directions Initiative and the Global Climate Change and Society program. His works include Geo-Logic: Breaking Ground between Philosophy and Earth Sciences and other essays in environmental thought.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Nature of Environmental Philosophy Bruce V. Foltz and Robert Frodeman

Part 1. The Phenomenology of Nature

1. The Uncanny Goodness of Being Edible to Bears James Hatley

2. Trees and Truth (or, Why We Are Really All Druids) David Wood

3. Boundary Projects versus Border Patrol Irene J. Klaver

4. Children and the Ethics of Place Ingrid Leman Stefanovic

5. Reciprocity David Abram

Part 2. Nature and the Philosophical Tradition

6. Eco-logic: An Erotic of Nature Trish Glazebrook

7. Vegetable Genius: Plant Metamorphosis as a Figure for Thinking and Relating to the Natural World in Post-Kantian German Thought Elaine P. Miller

8. The Elemental Earth John Sallis

Part 3. Nature and Natural Science

9. Philosophy in the Field Robert Frodeman

10. Beyond Doubt: Environmental Philosophy and the Human Predicament Robert Kirkman

11. Deleuze and Guattari's Return to Science as a Basis for Environmental Philosophy Robert Mugerauer

Part 4. Approaches to Nature

12. What Can Continental Philosophy Contribute to Environmentalism? Michael E. Zimmerman

13. Contemporary Continental Philosophy and Environmental Ethics: A Difficult Relationship? Diane Michelfelder

14. Biodiversity, Exuberance, and Abundance: Cherishing the Body of the Earth Stephen David Ross

15. Mapping the Earth in Works of Art Edward S. Casey

Part 5. On the Nature of Nature

16. The Music of Space Alphonso Lingis

17. A Sand County Almanac: Through Anthropogenic to Ecogenic Thinking Kenneth Maly

18. Nature and Nurture: A Non-disjunctive Approach Bruce Wilshire, with Ron Cooper

19. Nature and Freedom: An Introduction to the Environmental Thought of Bernard Charbonneau Daniel Cérézuelle

20. Nature's Other Side: The Demise of Nature and the Phenomenology of Givenness Bruce V. Foltz

Contributors

Index