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The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
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The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World Paperback - 1997

by David Abram

Elegant in exposition, vast in implication, this groundbreaking work of ecological philosophy compellingly argues the necessity for restoring humanity's lost connections with the sensuous world. Drawing on disciplines as diverse as phenomenology and sleight-of-hand magic, Abram explains how the processes readers think of as "mental" actually derive from a deeply physical interaction with the rest of nature.

First line

LATE ONE EVENING I STEPPED OUT OF MY LITTLE HUT IN THE rice paddies of eastern Bali and found myself falling through space.

From the jacket flap

David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with passion and intellectual daring.
"Long awaited, revolutionary...This book ponders the violent disconnection of the body from the natural world and what this means about how we live and die in it."--Los Angeles Times

Details

  • Title The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World
  • Author David Abram
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Pages 368
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Vintage, New York
  • Date 1997-02-25
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • ISBN 9780679776390 / 0679776397
  • Weight 0.55 lbs (0.25 kg)
  • Dimensions 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 in (20.32 x 13.21 x 2.03 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Human ecology, Philosophy of nature
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 95031466
  • Dewey Decimal Code 128

Media reviews

Citations

  • People Weekly, 02/25/2008, Page 53

About the author

DAVID ABRAM, Ph.D., is an ecologist and philosopher whose writings have had a deepening influence upon the environmental movement in North America and abroad. A summa cum laude graduate of Wesleyan University, he holds a doctorate in philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and has been the recipient of fellowships from the Watson and Rockefeller Foundations and a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction. He is an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician and has lived and traded magic with indigenous magicians in Indonesia, Nepal, and the Americas.

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