The Idea of Wilderness
From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology
Max Oelschlaeger(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 24. April 1991
Book
Hardback
492 pages
978-0-300-04851-3 (ISBN)
Description
In this book Max Oelschlaeger argues that the idea of wilderness has reflected the evolving character of human existence from paleolithic times to the present day. An intellectual history, it draws together evidence from philosophy, anthropology, theology, literature, ecology, cultural geography, and archaeology to provide a scientifically and philosophically informed understanding of humankind's relationship to nature. Oelschlaeger begins by examining the culture of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, whose totems symbolized the idea of organic unity between humankind and wild nature, an idea that the author believes is essential to any attempt to define human potential. He next traces how the transformation of these hunter-gatherers into farmers led to a new awareness of distinctions between humankind and nature, and how Hellenism and Judeo-Christianity later introduced the concept that nature was valueless until humanized. Oelschlaeger discusses the concept of wilderness in relation to the rise of classical science and modernism, and shows that opposition to "modernism" arose almost immediately from scientific, literary, and philosophical communities.
He provides studies of the seminal American figures Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold and he gives fresh readings of America's two prodigious wilderness poets Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder. He concludes with a look at the relationship of evolutionary thought to our postmodern effort to reconceptualize ourselves as civilized beings who remain, in some ways, natural animals.
He provides studies of the seminal American figures Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold and he gives fresh readings of America's two prodigious wilderness poets Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder. He concludes with a look at the relationship of evolutionary thought to our postmodern effort to reconceptualize ourselves as civilized beings who remain, in some ways, natural animals.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
notes, index
Dimensions
Height: 42 mm
Width: 66 mm
Weight
880 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-04851-3 (9780300048513)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
The idea of wilderness - from Paleolithic to Neolithic culture; ancient mediterranean ideas of humankind and nature - the passage from myth to history; the alchemy of modernism - the transmutation of wilderness into nature; wild nature - critical responses to modernism; Henry David Thoreau - philosopher of the wilderness; John Muir - wilderness sage; Aldo Leopold and the age of ecology; the idea of wilderness in the poetry of Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder; contemporary wilderness philosophy - from resourcism to deep ecology; cosmos and wilderness - an evolutionary wilderness philosophy.