Described as “daring” and “truly original” by the journal Science, as "revolutionary" by the Los Angeles Times, David Abram was the first contemporary philosopher to advocate for a reappraisal of indigenous "animism" as a complexly nuanced and uniquely viable worldview— alongside a broadening understanding of consciousness—catalyzing a complex reassessment now underway in many disciplines. In this talk, David will elaborate on his phrase "the more-than-human world" to speak of nature as a realm that thoroughly includes humankind, yet one that necessarily exceeds humankind; the phrase has now been taken up worldwide within the broad movement for ecological sanity.
This panel took place on Saturday, September 13, as part of Frontiers of Knowledge, a day-long symposium featuring an amazing collection of world-renowned speakers conceived by Candice Olson and co-produced by Aspen Public Radio, Center for MINDS, California Institute of Integral Studies and the Mays Family Foundation at the historic Wheeler Opera House in the heart of Aspen, Colorado. Learn more at: frontiersofknowledge.org
Speakers:
David Abram –cultural ecologist and geophilosopher– is the author of The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World, and Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. Described as “daring” and “truly original” by the journal Science, as "revolutionary" by the Los Angeles Times, David's work engages the ecological depths of experience, exploring the ways in which sensory perception, language, and imagination inform the relation between the human animal and the animate earth. David was the first contemporary philosopher to advocate for a reappraisal of indigenous "animism" as a complexly nuanced and uniquely viable worldview — catalyzing a complex reassessment now underway in many disciplines. In his first book, David coined the phrase "the more-than-human world" in order to speak of nature as a realm that thoroughly includes humankind, yet also necessarily exceeds humankind; the phrase has now been taken up worldwide within the broad movement for ecological sanity. Dr. Abram has received numerous awards, including fellowships from the Rockefeller and Watson foundations, and the international Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction. Co-founder and Director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics (AWE), David has held the international Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice and Ecology at the University of Oslo, and was recently the Senior Visiting Scholar in Ecology and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University. He makes his home in the foothills of the southern Rockies.