Another Thomas Berry quote worth spending a bit of time with: “Acceptance of the challenging aspect of the natural world is a primary condition for creative intimacy with the natural world. Without this opaque or even threatening aspect of the universe we would lose our greatest source of creative energy. This opposing element is as […]
Archive for the ‘Eco-theory’ Category
Berry’s creative, dynamic universe
Posted in Eco-theory, Philosophy, Spirit matter, tagged Deleuze, ecotheology on June 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Thomas Berry passes away
Posted in Eco-culture, Eco-theory, Philosophy, Spirit matter, tagged ecotheology, mortality on June 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The tributes are starting to come in for Thomas Berry, Catholic ecotheologian (or “geologian,” as he sometimes referred to himself), scholar, and spiritual/deep ecological visionary, who passed away at age 94 yesterday. Berry is best known for books including The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story (with physicist Brian Swimme), and The Great Work, […]
between continental & environmental philosophy
Posted in Eco-theory, Philosophy, tagged Continental philosophy, Deleuze, ecotheory, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Spinoza on May 30, 2009 | 26 Comments »
Responding to a post on this blog, Kvond, a little while ago, raised the question of the relationship between Arne Naess, originator of “deep ecology,” and Spinoza – which made me think of the interesting if sporadic/uneven/episodic relationships between the main traditions of continental philosophy and environmental thought. A glance at the changing editions of […]
Green cultural studies
Posted in Academe, Cultural politics, Eco-culture, Eco-theory, tagged cultural studies, ecology, ecomedia on February 26, 2009 | 2 Comments »
“Cultural studies” refers to the study of cultural objects, meanings, and processes, and their production and use in contemporary society. It is an interdisciplinary field with a twin commitment to intellectual rigor and social relevance. While the “rigor” piece sometimes means “objectivity,” often it involves a questioning of the assumption that objectivity and subjectivity can […]
On ground and groundlessness: Jamesonian Marxism v. Derridean deconstruction v. Buddhist onto-phenomenalism (w/ guest appearances by Lacan and Freud, spiked all the way through with ecology)
Posted in Eco-theory, Philosophy, Spirit matter, tagged Buddhism, Derrida, ecocriticism, Jameson, Madhyamika, Marxism, psychoanalysis, theory, Zizek on February 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Or, Toward an eco-Buddhist-processualist cultural criticism Note: This is work in progress and probably won’t be published for a while, and not in this form in any case. It comes from an attempt to theorize an ‘ecocritical’ understanding of culture that is in dialogue with the Marxist tradition of social and political analysis, Derridean poststructural […]
geophilosophy
Posted in Eco-theory, Philosophy, tagged Deleuze, Guattari on January 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The term “geophilosophy” is intended here in a nod both to Aldo Leopold’s idea of “Thinking like a mountain,” which I take as a provocation (what, or how, does a mountain think?) rather than a declaration of identity (“I’m the one who speaks for the mountain”) and, secondly, to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s ecophilosophizing. […]
rigpa meets anima…
Posted in Eco-theory, Uncategorized, tagged animism, Buddhism, Dzogchen on December 14, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Rigpa is the state of compassionate awareness that, according to Mahayana Buddhism, is the innermost nature of the mind. It is the primordial, nondual mind that shines through when unobscured; intelligent, cognizant, awake. “Empty in essence, cognizant in nature, unconfined in capacity.” Recognizing and dwelling within rigpa is the goal of Dzogchen practice (a kind […]
immanence, transcendence, religion, imagination, politics
Posted in Eco-theory, Philosophy, Spirit matter, tagged animism, deconstruction, Deleuze, Derrida, immanence, immanent naturalism, Lacan, paganism, pantheism, religion, Zizek on December 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
On the surface, “immanence” would appear to favor certain religiosities (paganisms, pantheisms, animisms, earth spiritualities) over others (transcendentalist monotheisms, rigid dualisms, Buddhist “extinctionism,” et al). But its resonance works within traditions as well: towards panentheistic strains of Christianity, where the Christ is seen as in-dwelling, where Easter is the rebirth of nature and life as […]