Philosophy and Environmental Studies

The idea and experience of the home is constituted in large part by departures from and returns to it, as well as by the deep cultural and emotional longing for it. I explore how pilgrimages and human ambulation more generally are significant in this regard and show that one can also be very much at home on the road in the act of slow movement across the earth, our most basic dwelling place. A particular focus is given to Asian philosophy, where Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, and everyday walkers create and experience a sense of home via singular or collective sauntering and wandering on foot. Comparisons are made with notions of the home and peripatetic activity in Western philosophy.

This article examines the perennial idea of the four seasons in relation to notions of place and time and shows the philosophical and environmental importance of emphasizing the periods of winter, spring, summer, and fall. After clarifying the western view of a season, it considers the seasons in the Eastern world. It then identifies and articulates different conceptions and scales of seasonal time in relation to place, including ideas associated with repetition, kairos, chronos, and mythic temporality. It looks in turn at possible challenges to the four-seasons model and discusses seasonal disruptions and discontinui-ties. The essay concludes by setting forth the values of a seasonal framework in terms of both providing an alternative to the idea of "nature" and contributing to sustainable living, noting the roles of seasonal festivals, story-telling, gardening , food preparation, the elements, walking, art, and everyday aesthetics.

The sky proclaimed Emerson is “the daily bread of the eyes.” Despite the apparent truth of this observation, we often fail to appreciate the complex canopy of air above and around us in considerations of environmental aesthetics and ecological awareness. I examine the sky and aerial phenomena that are bound to, allied closely with, or materially emergent from this ocean of blue. In the process, I develop a perspective for thinking about some of the aesthetic characteristics and dimensions of this realm. I show that understanding and appreciating the sky must attend to features related to ephemerality, protean colors, the lack of a clear and definite frame, and other non-anthropogenic qualities. I pay particular attention to explorations of horizontally-mobile clouds and, for the sake of contrast, vertically-originating snow by painters, poets, and philosophers who are able to express imaginative components of these phenomena and to reveal or vivify aspects that complement or complete the more realistic descriptions provided by natural scientists. The always-accessible and ever-fluctuating beauty of the sky offers the potential for deepening our daily experiences of and encounters with the elemental world in which we are sensually immersed and physically embedded.  It also helps to offer an indirect rationale for respecting and protecting this vital other-than-human sphere.

I examine the Presocratic thinker Empedocles' philosophical, poetic and religious works-Peri Phuseous (On Nature) and Katharmoi (Purifications)-in terms of their orientations, attitudes and sensibilities toward the natural environment. Through the development of an ethical and material framework centered upon the four rhizomata (roots or elements) of earth, fire, air and water, Empedocles provides an early but important understanding of ideas and issues that remain ecologically relevant today, including conceptions of pollution, the treatment of nonhuman animals, descriptions of organic processes, and the speculative underpinnings of evolutionary theory. I suggest that we can reasonably view Empedocles as kind of shaman-naturalist who is keenly aware of and empathetic with the workings of the physical world even if he is not strictly an "ancient environmentalist". Finally, I point to the post-structuralist work of Deleuze and Guattari, where we can find a critical exploration of the kind of "roots" Empedocles identifies and a defense of the notion of "rhizomes" that enables us both to observe continuities with the Presocratic philosopher and to make creative or constructive links with our modern environment.

I examine the ancient and perennial notion of the elements (stoicheia) and its relation to an idea of place proper (topos) and natural place (topos oikeios) in Aristotle's work. Through an exploration of his accounts, I argue that Aristotle develops a robust theory of place that is relevant to current environmental and geographical thought. In the process, he provides a domestic household and home for earth, air, fire and water that offers a supplement or an alternative to more abstract and controversial uses of a conception of 'nature' (physis). I identify and elaborate upon environmental aspects of place-based and elemental philosophy.

This paper examines some of the key ways in which water is mediated by technology and human artifacts. I show how the modes in which we conceive and experience this vital fluid are affected deeply by the techniques and instruments we use to interact with it. I argue that a notion of the domestication of water enables us to better grasp our relations with the environment given that vast volumes of water are now neither completely natural nor artificial in the conventional senses of the terms. Instead, water is often filtered through an expansive technological network that not merely changes its flows and phenomenal forms but greatly alters or multiplies its meanings. As examples of this process, I investigate the practical engagement with water by the first Western philosopher; the construction of several large hydrological projects; efforts at river management in the aesthetic landscape; and the emergence of bottled water.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/48857252.pdf

I argue that Nietzsche offers us a very robust, if fractured and fragmented, philosophy of the body that gives primacy to the five (or more) senses—and certain organs and body parts in particular—and to the aesthetic realm of which they are the arbiters.  The paper explores the senses and the body in Nietzsche's work  and includes ten original illustrations.

This 5-part series of articles  (written as an undergraduate major in Philosophy and Government) at the College of William and Mary) is the first major study of the animal rights and animal liberation movement that was fully emerging in the United States.  It examines the organization, structure, goals, and ideas of those working to protect non-human animals.  (Note: unpublished but also available upon request from the author or though the library at the College of William and Mary—and a separate part of this work— is an original theory and analysis of "Inter-specific Justice" (i.e., for both human and non-human animals).

This 5-part series of articles  (written as an undergraduate major in Philosophy and Government) at the College of William and Mary) is the first major study of the animal rights and animal liberation movement that was fully emerging in the United States.  It examines the organization, structure, goals, and ideas of those working to protect non-human animals.  (Note: unpublished but also available upon request from the author or though the library at the College of William and Mary—and a separate part of this work— is an original theory and analysis of "Inter-specific Justice" (i.e., for both human and non-human animals).

This 5-part series of articles  (written as an undergraduate major in Philosophy and Government) at the College of William and Mary) is the first major study of the animal rights and animal liberation movement that was fully emerging in the United States.  It examines the organization, structure, goals, and ideas of those working to protect non-human animals.  (Note: unpublished but also available upon request from the author or though the library at the College of William and Mary—and a separate part of this work— is an original theory and analysis of "Inter-specific Justice" (i.e., for both human and non-human animals).

This 5-part series of articles  (written as an undergraduate major in Philosophy and Government) at the College of William and Mary) is the first major study of the animal rights and animal liberation movement that was fully emerging in the United States.  It examines the organization, structure, goals, and ideas of those working to protect non-human animals.  (Note: unpublished but also available upon request from the author or though the library at the College of William and Mary—and a separate part of this work— is an original theory and analysis of "Inter-specific Justice" (i.e., for both human and non-human animals).

This 5-part series of articles  (written as an undergraduate major in Philosophy and Government) at the College of William and Mary) is the first major study of the animal rights and animal liberation movement that was fully emerging in the United States.  It examines the organization, structure, goals, and ideas of those working to protect non-human animals.  (Note: unpublished but also available upon request from the author or though the library at the College of William and Mary—and a separate part of this work— is an original theory and analysis of "Inter-specific Justice" (i.e., for both human and non-human animals).

An exploration of Hannah Arendt's philosophy in terms of issues related to the earth, earth and world alienation, space, place, and nature.  I examine her work in The Human Condition and other books and essays, connecting it to developments in ecological thought and critical social theory.  I provide a historical, philosophical, and political perspective on these topics and argue for the relevance of her ideas.

I examine some of the contributions to an ecological anarchist tradition that, I argue, antedates, influences, and presently remains coextensive with Murray Bookchin’s work. It is to this tradition which Bookchin returns, from which he departs, and occasionally over and past which he looks. In so doing, I situate Bookchin’s thought historically against the work of Peter Kropotkin in particular and try to illuminate some of the tendencies and tensions within both anarchist and ecological theory.

By showing how closely related Bookchin’s work is to Kropotkin’s opus, I try to restore the importance of Kropotkin for critical social theory and to stress his relevance for the future of social ecology. If, as I claim, comprehending Kropotkin is central to understanding Bookchin, then it would bode well for future social ecologists to investigate this earlier body of work as they advance and refine their theory. This comparative and critical enterprise is valuable ultimately because it allows us to better understand the origins of, changes in, and complexities concerning social ecology, and to further develop informed responses to environmental and political challenges.