The Wakeful World: Animism, Mind and the Self in Nature
Format:
Book
Publication Date:
2012/10/26/
Publisher:
John Hunt Publishing
Sources ID:
36601
Collection:
Contemplation and Ecology
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Abstract:
(Show)
Over the past few hundred years, animism has been dismissed as a primitive, naïve and irrational perspective, irrelevant within the civilised West. In The Wakeful World, Emma Restall Orr argues that this is based on the misrepresentation, drawn in crayon, that each tree and stone has its own Christian-like immortal soul.Taking the reader on a philosophical adventure, Restall Orr explores the heritage of Western thought with precision, enthusiasm and sensitivity, considering how soul, spirit, mind and consciousness have been understood through millennia. Challenging the prevailing worldviews of materialism and dualism, she presents animism as a radically different, yet mature and coherent philosophy.
Providing deep green ethics with a wholly rational metaphysical foundation, The Wakeful World is a compelling view of the nature of existence and the experience of reality, giving solid ground for the now necessary journey to a sustainable world.