The Foundations of Nature
Metaphysics of Gift for an Integral Ecological Ethic
- Philosophy
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2020
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Publisher's Description
Will the ecological crises of our time be resolved using the same form of thought that has brought them about? Are technological prowess and political power the proper tools to address them? Is there not a deeper connection between our ecological crises and our human, social, political, economic, and ethical crises? This book argues that the popular approaches to ecological, bioethical, and other human crises are not working because they fail to examine the problem in its full depth. This depth escapes us because we have abandoned true metaphysical reflection on the whole and substituted it unknowingly for a series of inadequate alternatives. Both the technocratic paradigm that views all of nature mechanistically and its antagonists--the eco-philosophies that argue for the realities of intrinsic value, relationality, and beauty--carry partial truths but are insufficient. This book presents a more radical alternative, rooted in the classical tradition yet fresh and vibrant. The metaphysics of gift, based in the giftedness of existence shared by all, offers a deeper and more satisfying vision of all things that can transform our relationship with nature and touches every aspect of human life: social, political, economic, technical, and ethical.
Endorsements (4)
“Taylor has performed three services in one in this work. First he offers us a comprehensive exposition of the best that trinitarian metaphysics has offered in the past century, secondly he has done this with a great deal of literary panache, and thirdly he has shown how a metaphysics of gift is required to underpin bioethical practices which will actually foster freedom and respect human dignity. This work belongs to a new generation of bioethics that goes beyond and beneath the tired old protocols that acknowledge nothing higher than technology.”
“Taylor’s use of ‘integral ecology’ reasserts the fact that ‘nature’ comprehends the entire created universe and, for this reason, includes both human bioethics and ecological ethics in the same worldview that gazes upon the manifold gift of existence. . . . The book’s clarity and precision make it an invaluable contribution to the future of ethical debate, especially regarding the environment, technology, and medicine.”
“Dr. Michael Taylor’s work offers a profound Christian vision of the real. He seeks honestly to gaze on the whole in all of its depth through the aid of figures such as Ferdinand Ulrich, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Pope Benedict XVI among others. At the interface of metaphysics and trinitarian theology, this book ranges from the mystical into the ecological and back again.”
“Taylor’s book takes a matter that concerns all of us at some level, namely, the meaning of nature, and opens it up to depths far beyond the limits modern ecology often sets for itself. It not only lets a new light into the field, but it does so in a way that allows us to avoid all the usual tired reductions. Those seeking orientation in this field will benefit greatly from his wise insights.”
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