Heidegger and the environment / Casey Rentmeester.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rentmeester, Casey, author.

Contributor:

Benjamin Franklin Library Fund.

Series:

New Heidegger research

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976.

Heidegger, Martin.

Philosophy of nature.

Ecology.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 121 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Rowman & Littlefield International, [2016]

Summary:

In the past few decades, it has become clear that the Western world's relationship with nature has led to environmental degradation so wide ranging that it threatens the existence of human civilizations as we have come to know them. The onset of anthropogenic climate change and the increasing threats of resource depletions are the most obvious signs of an environmental crisis. This book attempts to examine the metaphysical underpinnings of our current environmental crisis, thereby viewing it from a philosophical perspective. Using Martin Heidegger's writings on the history of being as its lynchpin, it examines how humans have come to view nature as a giant array of mere resources to be maximally exploited. Following Heidegger, Casey Rentmeester argues that this understanding of nature is rooted in the understanding of what it means to be that came about in ancient Greece. Rentmeester then utilizes elements of Heidegger's post-metaphysical later philosophy and aspects of early philosophical Daoism to create an alternative way to think about the relation between humans and nature that is environmentally sustainable. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Components of the Climate Crisis 1

Climate Change as a Sign of the Crisis 3

Resource Depletions and Terra-Transformation in the Anthropocene 4

A Heideggerian Response 8

2 Heidegger's History of Being 15

The Ancient Greek Epoch of Being 17

The Medieval Epoch of Being 22

The Modern Epoch of Being 24

3 The Contemporary Period 39

The Mathematical in Modern Science 39

The Age of Modern Technology 45

Enframing as the Essential Unfolding of Modern Technology 49

Enframing and the Climate Crisis 53

4 A New Way of Revealing 61

The New Beginning 62

Ereignis 66

Freedom, Letting Be, and Dwelling 70

Becoming What We Essentially Are 79

5 Cultivating a Non-Western Perspective 87

From Heidegger to Daoism 88

Wúwéi and Gelassenheit 91

A New "Ethic" 95

Conclusion 99.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Benjamin Franklin Library Fund.

ISBN:

1783482338

9781783482320

178348232X

9781783482337

OCLC:

922970991

Publisher Number:

99965862676