‘Emplaced Transcendence’ as Ecologising Education in Michael Bonnett's Environmental Philosophy

Abstract

At the 2019 Annual Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Michael Bonnett was an invited speaker, giving a paper entitled ‘Transcendent nature, sustainability, and ‘ecologising’ education’. In this keynote, Bonnett shared portions of his forthcoming book, Environmental Consciousness, Nature, and Philosophy of Education: Ecologizing Education (London, Routledge). A day earlier at the conference Jeff Stickney gave a paper entitled ‘Informal place-based learning in environmental sustainability education: Seeing anew the Cloister oak tree at New College through Heidegger & Wittgenstein's Philosophies.’ Here we offer a section of Stickney's paper discussing Bonnett's environmental philosophy, focusing on a central aspect of his work: aesthetic and place-based education as a way of connecting more deeply with ‘nature’. Instead of delivering his paper at the conference, Stickney led participants on a walk across the Oxford campus, talking about the place and seeking to enhance appreciation of the evergreen oak tree in the cloister by entertaining different philosophical perspectives while those gathered drew the tree. The exercise was meant to illustrate what aesthetic, emplaced transcendence might actually look and feel like, in practice. Bonnett humbly agreed to write a brief response for this Special Issue.