The World in Which We Occur: John Dewey, Pragmatist Ecology, and American Ecological Writing in the Twentieth Century [Hardcover]

Where nature meets democracyJohn Deweys vision for a more connected world.

American philosopher John Dewey considered all human endeavors to be one with the natural world. In his writings, particularlyArt as Experience(1934), Dewey insists on the primacy of the environment in aesthetic experience. Deweys conception of environment includes both the natural and the man-made.The World in Which We Occurhighlights this notion in order to define pragmatist ecology, a practice rooted in the interface of the cultural and the natural. Neil Browne finds this to be a significant feature of some of the most important ecological writing of the last century.

To fully understand human involvement in the natural world, Browne argues that disciplinary boundaries must be opened, with profound implications for the practice of democracy. The degradation of the physical environment and democratic decay, for Browne, are rooted in the same problem: our persistent belief that humans are somehow separate from their physical environment.

Browne probes the work of a number of major American writers through the lens of Deweys philosophy. Among other texts examined are John MuirsMy First Summer in the Sierra(1911);Sea of Cortez(1941) by John Steinbeck and Edward Ricketts; Rachel Carsons three books about the sea,Under the Sea-Wind(1941),The Sea Around Us(1951), andThe Edge of the Sea(1955); John HainessThe Stars, the Snow, the Fire(1989); Barry LopezsArctic Dreams(1986); and Terry Tempest WilliamssRefuge(1991). Together, these textswith their combinations of scientific observation and personal meditationchallenge the dichotomies that we have become accustomed and affirm the principles of a pragmatist ecology, one in which ecological and democratic values go hand in hand.

The World in Which We Occurexplores the profound influence of John Deweys philosophy on Americalc%