Key Thinkers on the Environment

by Joy A. Palmer (Editor), David E. Cooper (Editor)

Key Thinkers on the Environment is a unique guide to environmental thinking through the ages. Joy A. Palmer Cooper and David E. Cooper, themselves distinguished authors on environmental matters, have assembled a team of expert contributors to summarize and analyse the thinking of diverse and stimulating figures from around the world and from ancient times to the present day. Among those included are:

philosophers such as Rousseau, Kant, Spinoza and Heidegger
activists such as Chico Mendes and Wangari Maathai
literary giants such as Virgil, Goethe and Wordsworth
major religious and spiritual figures such as Buddha and St Francis of Assissi
eminent scientists such as Darwin, Lovelock and E.O. Wilson.

Lucid, scholarly and informative, the essays contained within this volume offer a fascinating overview of humankind’s view and understanding of the natural world.

Genres: Environment

425 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 7, 2000

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful introduction to a broad range of figures that have contributed to our current ways of thinking about the environment. Some of the entries on the earlier figures (Buddha, Chuang Tzu, Virgil) are a little lame, and some of the entries on a few of the key American figures (John Muir, Thoreau) don't really contribute much from what you pick up reading environmental literature generally. However, the choice to include people who, while not environmental philosophers, have nonetheless greatly altered our conception of the environment (like Frederick Law Olmsted), is helpful in creating a much better understanding of the history of environmental thought, as is the inclusion of many non-Western thinkers (Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore).

[elise anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dry but a solid collection of big brains and historical/spiritual figures. Each section summarizes a different single thinker's philosophies and work in regards to nature.