Description
Book SynopsisThis study explores the increasingly troubled relationship between humankind and the Earth, with the help of a simple example and a complicated interlocutor. The example is a pond, which, it turns out, is not so simple as it seems. The interlocutor is Jean-Paul Sartre, novelist, playwright, biographer, philosopher, and, despite his several disavowals, doyen of twentieth-century existentialism. Standing with the great humanist at the edge of the pond, the author examines contemporary experience in the light of several familiar conceptual pairs: nature and culture, fact and value, reality and imagination, human and nonhuman, society and ecology, Earth and world. The theoretical challenge is to reveal the critical complementarity and experiential unity of this family of ideas. The practical task is to discern the heuristic implications of this lived unity-in-diversity in these times of social and ecological crisis. Interdisciplinary in its aspirations, the study draws upon recent developm
Trade ReviewThe expression “it seems fair to wonder” appears frequently throughout the book. It is an apt expression for Ecology and Existence, which encourages its readers to wonder (more or for the first time) about Sartre’s philosophy, ecology, the sciences more generally, our environmental and ecological crises, hope (and despair) over the future of Earth and its myriad worlds, and the relations among all of these. Especially for those who consider themselves in some sense Sartrean (seeking intelligibility, struggling for a better future, perhaps to this point insufficiently thinking through ecological matters), this book is a helpful read. * Sartre Studies International *
This book is truly unique: at once brilliant, timely, often amusing, and exceptionally rich in its references to contemporary thinking in philosophy, history, and science. Professor Ally engages Jean-Paul Sartre as his Virgil in a revealing trek through nature, from a sylvan pond to the outer rings of the global ecological crisis. In the end, while not concealing the hellish aspect of our current situation, he argues strongly and convincingly against abandoning hope. -- William L. McBride, Purdue University
In ‘bringing Sartre to the water’s edge,’ Matthew Ally demonstrates the surprising relevance of existentialism to the growing environmental crisis, and gives us a new and holistic way of understanding that crisis. There is nothing quite like this work of ecology and philosophy focusing on a single pond in upstate New York and ending with the urgent call to transform the geoculture of capitalism, consumerism, and colonialism. Deeply considered, beautifully written, and powerfully felt, it is a book to be lived with, enjoyed, savored, and pondered. Ecology and Existence is a masterwork by a mature and confident thinker. -- Ronald Aronson, author of We: Reviving Social Hope
In a brilliant tour de force Matthew Ally brings Sartre to bear on environmental thought. His masterfully structured work reads like a nimble essay. He captures our imagination, bringing the conceptual toolbox of humanist thought into play at a pond. Sartre at the water’s edge never turns into a Narcissus reflecting upon himself, rather, he finds his 'integrative and open-ended philosophical method' in a newly found freedom of water. Contingency, freedom, responsibility, solidarity, and liberation, are revived in the experiential lack of gravity the pond provides. Ally is a story teller and a scientifically informed philosopher with an exquisite literary sensibility. He brings natural history writing back into philosophy, contemporizing a rich tradition of Thoreau and Rachel Carson. -- Irene J. Klaver, University of North Texas
The pond! Does it exist, or not exist? Matthew Ally has brought Jean-Paul Sartre finally out from the café and into the woods, writing a major work of existential ecophilosophy that is the climax of years of careful thinking. The field, like the pond, will be changed forever. -- David Rothenberg, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, New Jersey Institute of Technology
The pond! Does it exist, or not exist? Matthew Ally has brought Jean-Paul Sartre finally out from the café and into the woods, writing a major work of existential ecophilosophy that is the climax of years of careful thinking. The field, like the pond, will be changed forever. -- David Rothenberg, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, New Jersey Institute of Technology
The pond is the place where many an American philosopher have skipped their philosophical stones, and by throwing some of his own Matthew Ally has placed himself within this important American tradition of ecological/environmental writing. This is a very original contribution to existentialism, existentialist ethics, environmental ethics, continental philosophy, and Sartre scholarship. This is not a book on Sartre, but a book that works with Sartre. It is not exegetical, although there is plenty of that. It is what the author calls 'reconstructive philosophy,' which is a wonderful genre: what philosophers could and should have said, but never did, even if it was bubbling off the pages they wrote. This is also not an apologia, but rather a constructive and prospective work: what we can and should do with one of the most inspiring philosophers of the twentieth century. Ally confronts directly five main evident liabilities with Sartre’s existentialism in relationship to the pressing issue of global climate change and environmental justice in the Anthropocene: reflexive anthropocentrism, heuristic exceptionalism, naïve instrumentalism, clannish exclusivism, and philosophical machismo. Follow Ally along his trekking to find out how he unravels Sartre’s inchoate existentialist environmental ethics. -- Eduardo Mendieta, Professor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University
Table of ContentsPrelude – Many Ways to Wonder confessions of a lifelong pond watcher PART I – ENVIRONMENTALISM AND HUMANISM SHIPS PASSING IN THE LIGHT Chapter 1 – Toward an Existential Ecology water, water, everywhere Chapter 2 – Bringing Sartre to the Biosphere the truth of a pond PART II – NATURE AND CULTURE WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT A POND? 1st Interval – On Method and Substance phenomenology Chapter 3 – A Phenomenological Exploration to the pond itself 2nd Interval – On Method and Substance dialectics Chapter 4 – A Dialectical Investigation everything is in this pond PART III – FACT AND VALUE ONE POND, RIGHT OR WRONG Chapter 5 – Order and Autonomy in Nature and History what ponds do 3rd Interval – On Method and Substance praxis Chapter 6 – From Integral Humanity to Participatory Belonging wet feet and a helping hand PART IV – REALITY AND IMAGINATION PONDS ON EARTH AND OTHER WORLDS Chapter 7 – A Global Crisis in Planetary Perspective stirring up a sea of troubles 4th Interval – On Method and Substance imagination Chapter 8 – Intimations of a New Socioecological Imaginary eddies, bubbles, and ripples PART V – EARTH AND WORLD FROM HABITABILITY TO LIVEABILITY Chapter 9 – To the Far Side of Anthropocentrism safely through the straits 5th Interval – On Method and Substance ecology Chapter 10 – On the Near Side of Ecocentrism running waters, deeper still Coda – Bringing Earth and world together again sketch of an existential ecology
