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By suggesting imaginative ways to resolve other crises, could humanities scholars stave off the crisis engulfing their own subjects? Morton proposes a future in which the venerable ideas of "nature" and "environment" are so much detritus, useless for addressing a looming ecological catastrophe. His book exemplifies the "serious" humanities scholarship he makes a plea for. My head's still spinning.--Noel Castree"Times Higher Education" (09/08/2011)
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In this passionate, lucid, and surprising book, Timothy Morton argues that all forms of life are connected in a vast, entangling mesh. This interconnectedness penetrates all dimensions of life. No being, construct, or object can exist independently from the ecological entanglement, Morton contends, nor does 'Nature' exist as an entity separate from the uglier or more synthetic elements of life. Realizing this interconnectedness is what Morton calls the ecological thought. In three concise chapters, Morton investigates the profound philosophical, political, and aesthetic implications of the fact that all life forms are interconnected. As a work of environmental philosophy and theory, "The Ecological Thought" explores an emerging awareness of ecological reality in an age of global warming. Using Darwin and contemporary discoveries in life sciences as root texts, Morton describes a mesh of deeply interconnected life forms - intimate, strange, and lacking fixed identity. A 'prequel' to his "Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (Harvard, 2007)", "The Ecological Thought" is an engaged and accessible work that will challenge the thinking of readers in disciplines ranging from critical theory to Romanticism to cultural geography.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you are concerned about deforestation, species loss, climate change and pollution, and you are looking for a book which offers avenues for thinking differently about our responsibility to the earth, then this publication should certainly be on your reading list. It's probably not for you if you are into social science-type publications with their blueprints for a sustainable future and their practical strategic programmes. Instead, this is very much a work for those who are invested in the humanities, and Morton's book makes a powerful case for the role the arts and culture can and should play in our society, providing a space for us to step back and spend more time thinking about the bigger picture. His ideas are deceptively simple, and they are presented here in an infectiously enthusiastic, conversational prose, which hopefully will make this book appealing to a wide audience. It's also delightfully short: I raced through my copy in a single train ride down from Scotland to London.
Morton has emerged in the past few years as a significant and increasingly influential voice within ecological thought. Like Bruno Latour, he argues that we would be well served to ditch our inherited concepts of `Nature', and although he offers a nice succinct summary of his reasons why in The Ecological Thought, this argument is laid out more fully in his 2007 book Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. But in contrast to Latour, Morton comes from a background in literature - in Romantic thought and ecocriticism - and anyone familiar with this field will appreciate how radically his perspective differs from much other writing in this area. In fact, by the end of this book he's thrown into doubt some pretty substantial shibboleths. Particularly interesting is his argument that environmental degradation is now so global in reach that we need to expand our sense of geography and perception immensely, and this leads him to take issue with the current preoccupation with localism and the strongly felt need to be embedded in a distinct place - attitudes still very prevalent within environmental circles.
Central to Morton's The Ecological Thought is the deceptively simply idea that everything is interconnected, and essentially the book is an account of how this profoundly Darwinian insight alters for good our notions of time, space, history, species and self. His stance is that thinking the meaningless and disorienting openness of interrelatedness should not lead us to fantasies of mass destruction or obsessions with self-preservation, but should make us more willing to embrace the unpredictability of radical interconnection, or, as he calls it `the entanglement of all strangers'. Partly drawing on the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, and partly on Derrida, he invokes the need for a renewed feeling of openness and a sense of our infinite responsibility. Actually, the footnotes in this book are full of references to publications that you wouldn't expect to see immediately associated with ecology, but what's great about Morton is that he makes them seem pertinent in new ways.
This is a very stimulating work: it's a genuine invitation to learn to think differently.
Morton has emerged in the past few years as a significant and increasingly influential voice within ecological thought. Like Bruno Latour, he argues that we would be well served to ditch our inherited concepts of `Nature', and although he offers a nice succinct summary of his reasons why in The Ecological Thought, this argument is laid out more fully in his 2007 book Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. But in contrast to Latour, Morton comes from a background in literature - in Romantic thought and ecocriticism - and anyone familiar with this field will appreciate how radically his perspective differs from much other writing in this area. In fact, by the end of this book he's thrown into doubt some pretty substantial shibboleths. Particularly interesting is his argument that environmental degradation is now so global in reach that we need to expand our sense of geography and perception immensely, and this leads him to take issue with the current preoccupation with localism and the strongly felt need to be embedded in a distinct place - attitudes still very prevalent within environmental circles.
Central to Morton's The Ecological Thought is the deceptively simply idea that everything is interconnected, and essentially the book is an account of how this profoundly Darwinian insight alters for good our notions of time, space, history, species and self. His stance is that thinking the meaningless and disorienting openness of interrelatedness should not lead us to fantasies of mass destruction or obsessions with self-preservation, but should make us more willing to embrace the unpredictability of radical interconnection, or, as he calls it `the entanglement of all strangers'. Partly drawing on the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, and partly on Derrida, he invokes the need for a renewed feeling of openness and a sense of our infinite responsibility. Actually, the footnotes in this book are full of references to publications that you wouldn't expect to see immediately associated with ecology, but what's great about Morton is that he makes them seem pertinent in new ways.
This is a very stimulating work: it's a genuine invitation to learn to think differently.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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2 reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
a book that makes you think deeply - Roman Luo
22 Feb 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The prequel of Ecology without Nature, The Ecological Thought, written by Timothy Morton, is a book that essentially talks about an idea of thinking ecologically towards any beings, matters or objects that exist in a gigantic, entangling "mesh". The central viewpoint behind this book is the idea that everything is interconnected. It also elucidates its intricate contexts through the aspects of philosophy, biology, ecology, nature, art, logic, and polity, etc. Writing only three chapters, "Thinking Big", "Dark Thoughts" and "Forward Thinking," Morton clarifies the distinction between Nature and Ecology, while explaining the essence behind interconnectedness. If you are the person that likes to think deeply and differently, then I think that you will love to read this book.
Two things that I can tell about this book, fantastic idea and extremely complicated explanation. Morton's idea of ecological is really worth people to think deeply and differently but the problem is just that it is really difficult to understand the way how he explans in the book. He uses so many profound evidences and data to support his arguments and it seems like he is trying to confuse his readers. In order to comprehend the ecological thought, the reader needs to have general knowledges as much as he/she can. However, once you get a sense of what Morton is trying to say, then you will probably be amazed about his opinion and idea.
Two things that I can tell about this book, fantastic idea and extremely complicated explanation. Morton's idea of ecological is really worth people to think deeply and differently but the problem is just that it is really difficult to understand the way how he explans in the book. He uses so many profound evidences and data to support his arguments and it seems like he is trying to confuse his readers. In order to comprehend the ecological thought, the reader needs to have general knowledges as much as he/she can. However, once you get a sense of what Morton is trying to say, then you will probably be amazed about his opinion and idea.
2 of 10 people found the following review helpful
To survive, we must do things based not on concepts of self
3 May 2010
Format:Hardcover
"The Ecological Thought" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Morton's book interview ran here as the cover feature on April 30, 2010.
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