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Document Details : Title: Border Life Subtitle: Dwelling in and Hospitality to Nature Author(s): TREANOR, Brian Journal: Etudes phénoménologiques - Phenomenological Studies Volume: 6 Date: 2022 Pages: 187-208 DOI: 10.2143/EPH.6.0.3289797 Abstract : Dwelling is a common subject for environmental philosophy. However, much of our thinking about dwelling — both popular and philosophical — has a distinctively domestic flavor. This seems to present us with a paradox, insofar as nature is often characterized as that which is untouched by humans and, thus, outside of the domestic sphere. Starting with a more plausible account of nature that takes seriously both its familiarity and its otherness, this essay distinguishes between nature and wildness, arguing that dwelling in the former is both possible and desirable, while dwelling in the latter is impossible. We are, and must remain, visitors to wilderness, and can only 'dwell' there in the sense of 'lingering' or 'being occupied with'. Hospitality presents a similar challenge, and is possible in the case of either nature or wilderness only if we extend the scope of hospitality beyond welcoming into the home toward a more general openness to otherness. |
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