Description
Book SynopsisThis collection of essays examines the various intersections between philosophical hermeneutics and environmental philosophy. Adopting a broad and inclusive understanding of our relation with the environment, it investigates a number of important topics for contemporary environmental thought, including the self, history, ethics, culture, and narrative.
Trade Review"This is a superb book, written with clarity, precision, and deep feeling for a better understanding of differing approaches to interpreting the wider natural world." -- -Mark Wallace Swarthmore College "... Interpreting Nature is engaging throughout and contributes to an important growth in environmental philosophy." -Environmental Values "Interpreting Nature is an excellent collection of essays. This collection is a very welcome addition to the literature and helps to move forward philosophical reflection on the idea of 'nature' and charts new and important ways to think about the task of an environmental ethics." -- -Charles Brown Emporia State University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Environmental Hermeneutics David Utsler, Forrest Clingerman, Martin Drenthen, and Brian Treanor Part I: Interpretation and the Task of Thinking Environmentally 1. Hermeneutics Deep in the Woods John van Buren 2. Morrow's Ants: E. O. Wilson and Gadamer's Critique of (Natural) Historicism Mick Smith 3. Layering: Body, Building, Biography Robert Mugerauer 4. Might Nature Be Interpreted as a "Saturated Phenomenon"? Christina M. Gschwandtner 5. Must Environmental Philosophy Relinquish the Concept of Nature? A Hermeneutic Reply to Steven Vogel W. S. K. Cameron Part II: Situating the Self 6. Environmental Hermeneutics and Environmental/Eco-Psychology: Explorations in Environmental Identity David Utsler 7. Environmental Hermeneutics With and For Others: Ricoeur's Ethics and the Ecological Self Nathan Bell 8. Bodily Moods and Unhomely Environments: The Hermeneutics of Agoraphobia and the Spirit of Place Dylan Trigg Part III: Narrativity and Image 9. Narrative and Nature: Appreciating and Understanding the Nonhuman World Brian Treanor 10. The Question Concerning Nature Sean McGrath 11. New Nature Narratives: Landscape Hermeneutics and Environmental Ethics Martin Drenthen Part IV: Environments, Place, and the Experience of Time 12. Memory, Imagination, and the Hermeneutics of Place Forrest Clingerman 13. The Betweenness of Monuments Janet Donohoe 14. My Place in the Sun David Wood 15. How Hermeneutics Might Save the Life of (Environmental) Ethics Paul Van Tongeren and Paulien Snellen Notes A Bibliographic Overview of Research in Environmental Hermeneutics List of Contributors Index