Ecology on the Ground and in the Clouds

Aimé Bonpland and Alexander von Humboldt

Andrea Nye (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

372 Seiten

2022
State University of New York Press (Verlag)
978-1-4384-8700-7 (ISBN)

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Follows Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland as they travel together in South America and then go their separate ways, in the process illustrating two very different ways of understanding humanity's place in the natural world.

In Ecology on the Ground and in the Clouds, Andrea Nye raises a question: In a time of climate change and environmental crisis, where should we look for inspiration? Is it to Alexander von Humboldt, the "inventor of nature" who viewed the cosmos from the lofty peak of Mount Chimborazo? Or is it to Humboldt's travel partner, the botanist Aimé Bonpland, who left Europe behind for forty years of conservation, agroforestry, and cooperative farming in the newly independent Republic of Argentina? For Bonpland, order and harmony are not unveiled with European reason and insight; they are made on the ground by intelligent, honorable, and diverse working men and women. Cosmos is not a hidden balance of nature; it is order in thought and action that ensures what we do is coherent and for the common good. It is fair and efficient government, just adjudication of disputes, and good management. It is loving attention to intricate "cogs and wheels" of natural processes at the same time as imagining new forms of beauty and stability in human communities and working landscapes.

Andrea Nye is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She is the author of many books, including Socrates and Diotima: Sexuality, Religion, and the Nature of Divinity.

Introduction

Part I: Setting Out

1. Close Encounter at a Paris Boarding House

2. A Walk across Spain and a Climb Up a Volcano

Part II: The Voyage

3. Aerial Views, Nocturnal Birds, and Wild Indians

4. The Eel Ponds of the Llanos

5. Riverworlds

6. The Mountain

7. The Changing of the Gods

Part III: The Return

8. Coming Home

9. Tales of Three Cities

10. Botany on Demand

11. Taking Leave

Part IV: Worlds Apart

12. A Lost Friend

13. Warlords and Kings

14. Cosmos and Microcosm

15. A Last Exchange of Gifts

16. Scattered Remains

Afterthoughts: A Bonplandian Ethos

Notes
Primary Sources
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	18.03.2022
Reihe/Serie	SUNY series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics
Zusatzinfo	Total Illustrations: 0
Verlagsort	Albany, NY
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	227 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
ISBN-10	1-4384-8700-2 / 1438487002
ISBN-13	978-1-4384-8700-7 / 9781438487007
Zustand	Neuware