Thinking About the Environment
Our Debt to the Classical and Medieval Past
Published on 6. November 2002
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-7391-0420-0 (ISBN)
Description
Why should the work of the ancient and the medievals, so far as it relates to nature, still be of interest and an inspiration to us now? The contributions to this enlightening volume explore and uncover contemporary scholarship's debt to the classical and medieval past. Thinking About the Environment synthesizes religious thought and environmental theory to trace a trajectory from Mesopotamian mythology and classical and Hellenistic Greek, through classical Latin writers, to medieval Christian views of the natural world and our relationship with it. The work also offers medieval Arabic and Jewish views on humanity's inseparability from nature. The volume concludes with a study of the breakdown between science and value in contemporary ecological thought. Thinking About the Environment will be a invaluable source book for those seeking to address environmental ethics from a historical perspective.
Reviews / Votes
It is as useful in its variety of approaches as in its attention to the common theme of environmental attitudes. Readers may well wish they had been present at the conference where the authors engaged in interchange... H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online A useful sequel to the editors' previous collection, The Greeks and the Environment...Students of the history of environmental ideas will be grateful for this series of reminders, many of them provocative, of the early roots of their growing inquiry. -- Donald Hughes, University of Denver H-Environment It is as useful in its variety of approaches as in its attention to the common theme of environmental attitudes. Readers may well wish they had been present at the conference where the authors engaged in interchange. H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews OnlineMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
bibliography; index
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 175 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
508 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7391-0420-0 (9780739104200)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Thomas M. Robinson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Laura Westra is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Windsor and the author or editor of numerous books, including Faces of Environmental Racism: Confronting Issues of Global Justice (with Bill Lawson, Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd edition, 2001), An Environmental Proposal for Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994), The Greeks and the Environment (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997), and Technology and Values (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998).
Content
Part 1 Foreword Part 2 Introduction Part 3 Greece and Rome Chapter 4 Nature and Culture in Mesopotamian and Greek Myths Chapter 5 Order, Harmony, and Justice: The Greek Conception of the Environment Chapter 6 Una Volta Fui Arbusto e Mutuo Pesce del Mare Chapter 7 Environmental Issues in Hellenistic Philosophy Chapter 8 Il Piu Antico Decreto Ecologico a Noi Noto e il Suo Contesto Chapter 9 Roman Forests, Virgilian Trees: Our Ambiguous Relationship with Nature Chapter 10 Augustine and Love of the Environment Part 11 Medieval Christianity Chapter 12 Perceptions of Nature in Polish Medieval and Early Renaissance Writings Chapter 13 Nature and Restoration in Wolfram Von Eschenbach's Parzival Chapter 14 Natural Laws and the Laws of Nature in Aristotle and Aquinas Chapter 15 La Tutela Ambientale del Lago Trasimeno in Eta Medioevale Part 16 Medieval Islam Chapter 17 Islamic Ecology: The De-Alienation of Persons from Nature Chapter 18 The Universe Alive: Nature in the Masnavi of Jalal al-Din Rumi Part 19 Medieval Judaism Chapter 20 Maimonides and Nachmanides on Sending Away the Mother Bird Chapter 21 The Third and Fifth Day of Creation Versus the Timeless Now Part 22 Then and Now Chapter 23 Reuniting Science and Value in the Natural Environment