Interpreting Nature - (Groundworks: Ecological Issues in Philosophy and Theology) by Brian Treanor & Martin Drenthen & David Utsler (Paperback)

About the Book

This 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.

Book Synopsis

Modern environmentalism has come to realize that many of its key concerns "wilderness" and "nature" among them are contested territory, viewed differently by different people. Understanding nature requires science and ecology, to be sure, but it also requires a sensitivity tom, history, culture, and narrative. Thus, understanding nature is a fundamentally hermeneutic task.

Review Quotes

"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

"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

"The essays...reveal and explicated myriad ways in which, narratives and interpretations mediate experience and action, and inform one's responses to, and interactions with, various environments. . .Recommended."--Choice Magazine

About the Author

Forrest Clingerman is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Ohio Northern University.

Brian Treanor is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of Environmental Studies at Loyola Marymount University

David Utsler is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies at the University of North Texas.

Martin Drenthen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands).