2017-18 Philosophy聽Department聽Colloquium Series presents guest lecturer Bryan Bannon, Associate Professor and Director of Environmental Studies, Merrimack College.聽Duvernoy will give a talk titled 鈥淔riendship as Reflective Environmental Practice.鈥 This is聽the second in a series of four talks on Environmental Philosophy.
Abstract:聽In this presentation, Bannon argues for a specific hermeneutic framework for understanding the human聽relationship to nature, friendship. Many current discussions of the human-nature relationship focus on the聽question of anthropocentrism, taking for granted that nature is a 鈥渕oral patient.鈥 Following an argument by Val聽Plumwood, Bannon, however, contends that if nature is understood as an active agency, we are able to begin聽conceptualizing what the contours of a friendship with nature would be like. After describing such contours,聽Bannon also considers how modeling our relationship on friendship could help to extricate environmentalism聽from its position as a discourse of sacrifice and situate it as an alternative conception of the good life.
