Freya Mathews's Books

The Ecological Self

By: Freya Mathews

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Environmental disasters, from wildfires and vanishing species to flooding and drought, have increased dramatically in recent years and debates about the environment are rarely far from the headlines. There is growing awareness that these disasters are connected – indeed, that in the fabric of nature everything is interconnected. However, until the publication of Freya Mathews' The Ecological Self, there had been remarkably few attempts to provide a conceptual foundation for such interconnectedness that brought together philosophy and science. In this acclaimed book, Mathews skilfully weaves together a thought-provoking metaphysics of the environment. She connects the ideas of the seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza with twentieth-century systems theory and Einstein’s physics to argue that the atomistic cosmology inherited from Newton gave credence to a picture of the universe as fragmented, rather than as whole. Furthermore, it is such faulty thinking that presents human beings as similarly disconnected and individualistic, with the dire consequence that they regard nature as of purely instrumental rather than intrinsic value. She concludes by arguing for an ethics of ecological interdependence and for a basic egalitarianism among living species. A compelling and fascinating account of how we must change our thinking about the environment, The Ecological Self is a classic of ecological and environmental thinking. This Routledge Classics edition includes a substantial new Introduction by the author.

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183

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000385833

ISBN 13

9781000385830

Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

By: Freya Mathews

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Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

By: Freya Mathews

What is soul? Can it be forfeited? Can it be traded away? If it can, what would ensue? What consequences would follow from loss of soul - for the individual, for society, for the earth? In the early nineteenth century, Goethe's hero, Faust, became a defining archetype of modernity, a harbinger of the existential possibilities and moral complexities of the modern condition. But today the dire consequences of the Faustian pact with the devil are becoming alarmingly visible. In light of this, how would Goethe's arguably flawed drama play out in a 21st-century century setting? Would a contemporary Faust sign up to a demonic deal? Indeed what, in the wake of two hundred years of social and economic development, would be left for the devil to offer him? A contemporary Faust would already possess everything the original Faust in his ascetic cloister lacked - affluence and mobility; celebrity and worldly influence; access to information; religious choice; sexual freedom and the availability of women - though women, it must be noted, currently also partake of that same freedom. The only thing a present-day Faust would lack would be his soul. Would he miss it? Does soul even exist? If it does, it would of course be the one thing the devil could not bestow. So from what or whom could Faust retrieve it? What, in a word, would a contemporary Faust most deeply desire? In pursuit of these questions, Ardea engages a familiar but possibly faulty archetype, that of Faust, with an unfamiliar one, that of the white heron, borrowed from a short story of the same name by nineteenth-century American author, Sarah Orne Jewett. In Jewett's tale, a soul-pact of an entirely different kind from that entered into by Faust is proposed. It is a pact with the wild, a pledge of fealty, of non-forfeiture, that promises to redraw the violent psycho-sexual and psycho-spiritual patterns that have underpinned modernity. How would a present-day heir to the Faustian tradition, ingrained with the habit of entitlement but also burdened with the consequences of the old pact, respond to the new proposition? Freya Mathews is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Latrobe University, and Adjunct Professor at the Monash Sustainability Institute, Monash University. Her books include The Ecological Self (1991), Ecology and Democracy (editor) (1996), For Love of Matter: a Contemporary Panpsychism (2003), Journey to the Source of the Merri (2003), Reinhabiting Reality: Towards a Recovery of Culture (2005). She is the author of over seventy articles in the area of ecological philosophy. Her current special interests are in ecological civilization; indigenous (Australian and Chinese) perspectives on "sustainability" and how these perspectives may be adapted to the context of contemporary global society; panpsychism and the critique of the metaphysics of modernity; and wildlife ethics in the context of the Anthropocene. In addition to her research activities she manages a private biodiversity reserve in Central Victoria. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

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105

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punctum books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0615845568

ISBN 13

9780615845562

For Love of Matter

A Contemporary Panpsychism

By: Freya Mathews

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For Love of Matter

A Contemporary Panpsychism

By: Freya Mathews

In For Love of Matter Freya Mathews challenges basic assumptions of Western science, modern philosophy, and environmental philosophy, arguing that the environmental crisis is a symptom of a larger, metaphysical crisis. Western science rests on the premise that the world is an inert backdrop to human presence rather than a communicative presence in its own right, one capable of dialogical congress with us. Mathews explores the transformative effects of a substitution of the latter, panpsychist premise for the former, materialist one. She suggests that to exist in a dialogical modality is to enter an expanded realm of eros in which the self and world are mutually kindled into a larger, more incandescent state of realization. She argues that any adequate philosophical response to the so-called "environmental crisis" cannot be encompassed within the minor discipline of environmental philosophy but must instead address the full range of existential questions.

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227

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State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791486397

ISBN 13

9780791486399

Reinhabiting Reality

Towards a Recovery of Culture

By: Freya Mathews

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Reinhabiting Reality

Towards a Recovery of Culture

By: Freya Mathews

In this sequel to For Love of Matter: A Contemporary Panpsychism, also published by SUNY Press, Freya Mathews argues that replacing the materialist premise of modern civilization with a panpsychist one transforms the entire fabric of culture in profound ways. She claims that the environmental crisis is a symptom of deeper issues facing modern civilization arising from the loss of the very meaning of culture. To come to grips with this crisis requires a change in the metaphysical premise of modernity deeper than any as yet envisaged even by the radical ecology movement. This is a change with profound implications for the full range of existential questions and not merely for questions regarding our relationship with "nature.

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239

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State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791483967

ISBN 13

9780791483961

Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

By: Freya Mathews

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Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

By: Freya Mathews

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105

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0615845568

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9780615845562

The Ecological Self

By: Freya Mathews

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The Ecological Self

By: Freya Mathews

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183

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Routledge

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1000385833

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9781000385830

Without Animals Life Is Not Worth Living

By: Freya Mathews

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Without Animals Life Is Not Worth Living

By: Freya Mathews

In Without Animals Life Is Not Worth Living, eco-philosopher Freya Mathews livens up her theme - that the company of animals is indispensable to human existence - by way of the story of an anarchic but irresistible pig. 'In this captivating story of a pig and a philosopher, Freya takes up the narratival mode of exposition that has recently engaged philosophers. Her account of Pookie tells of a human person's love across a huge species boundary. Few pigs have been so fondly and respectfully brought into print. Freya's philosophical commitment to truth leads her into unfashionable conclusions: pigs are not particularly intelligent, she tells us. On the basis of life with Pookie, she finds pigs to be determined, focussed and insistent, but not demonstrably smart. Having made that point, Freya goes on to provide a vivid account of Pookie's actual sentience: her sense of self, her joy, her determination, her later dejection, and her capacity for remembrance.' - Deborah Bird Rose

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1760410926

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9781760410926

Reinhabiting Reality

Towards a Recovery of Culture

By: Freya Mathews

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Reinhabiting Reality

Towards a Recovery of Culture

By: Freya Mathews

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239

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State University of New York Press

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0791483967

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9780791483961

Journey to the Source of the Merri

By: Freya Mathews

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Journey to the Source of the Merri

By: Freya Mathews

An ecological philosopher's account of three friends' journey to the source of their local creek.

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1740271971

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9781740271974

Book's by Freya Mathews

The Ecological Self

The Ecological Self

Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

For Love of Matter

For Love of Matter

Reinhabiting Reality

Reinhabiting Reality

Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

Ardea: A Philosophical Novella

The Ecological Self

The Ecological Self

Without Animals Life Is Not Worth Living

Without Animals Life Is Not Worth Living

Reinhabiting Reality

Reinhabiting Reality

Journey to the Source of the Merri

Journey to the Source of the Merri

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