The World in Which We Occur: John Dewey, Pragmatist Ecology, and American Ecological Writing in the Twentieth CenturyUniversity of Alabama Press, 2007 M10 31 - 224 pages American philosopher John Dewey considered all human endeavors to be one with the natural world. In his writings, particularly Art as Experience (1934), Dewey insists on the primacy of the environment in aesthetic experience. Dewey’s conception of environment includes both the natural and the man-made. The World in Which We Occur highlights this notion in order to define “pragmatist ecology,” a practice rooted in the interface of the cultural and the natural. Neil Browne finds this to be a significant feature of some of the most important ecological writing of the last century. To fully understand human involvement in the natural world, Browne argues that disciplinary boundaries must be opened, with profound implications for the practice of democracy. The degradation of the physical environment and democratic decay, for Browne, are rooted in the same problem: our persistent belief that humans are somehow separate from their physical environment. Browne probes the work of a number of major American writers through the lens of Dewey’s philosophy. Among other texts examined are John Muir’s My First Summer in the Sierra (1911); Sea of Cortez (1941) by John Steinbeck and Edward Ricketts; Rachel Carson’s three books about the sea, Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951), and The Edge of the Sea (1955); John Haines’s The Stars, the Snow, the Fire (1989); Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams (1986); and Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge (1991). Together, these texts—with their combinations of scientific observation and personal meditation—challenge the dichotomies that we have become accustomed and affirm the principles of a pragmatist ecology, one in which ecological and democratic values go hand in hand. |
Contents
John Dewey and Pragmatist Ecology | 1 |
John Muirs My First Summer in the Sierra | 21 |
Pragmatist Ecology and Sea of Cortez | 50 |
Pragmatist Ecology Aesthetics and Ethics | 78 |
Silence and Work in John Hainess The Stars the Snow the Fire | 111 |
Wonder Politics and Pragmatist Ecology in Barry Lopezs Arctic Dreams | 143 |
Other editions - View all
The World in Which We Occur: John Dewey, Pragmatist Ecology, and American ... Neil W. Browne No preview available - 2007 |
The World in Which We Occur: John Dewey, Pragmatist Ecology, and American ... Neil W. Browne No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic experience Alabama Press Alaska American animals Arctic Dreams argues art of knowing Barry Lopez beauty becomes birds Coast Pilot copying copyrighted material published creative creatures culture defined under U.S. democracy democratic Dewey's distributing earth ecological writing ecosystems ecotone Edge Emerson ence environmental essay ethical exist fair fish Haines’s idea imagination inquiry insists integrity interaction interrelationships John Dewey John Haines John Muir land landscape law is illegal literary living logic meaning ment metaphor Muir's narrative natural world nature writing nonhuman world ongoing participate perceive perception philosophy physical environment physical world posting potential pragmatist ecology prose Rachel Carson reader reading copyrighted material Refuge relations relationship scientific Sea of Cortez Sea Wind seems sense Sierra Silent Spring snow space Steinbeck and Ricketts Terry Tempest things thinking Thoreau thought tion U.S. Copyright law understanding University of Alabama wilderness Williams wonder