Philosophy of the Outdoors

How Being Active in Nature Gives Meaning to Life

This project is inspired by my love of the outdoors. The target audience for the book is both philosophers and outdoors people who like to ask the big questions in life.

It’s for those hikers, runners, cyclists, swimmers, etc., who have noticed that physical activity seems to open up both body and mind to nature, who have wondered how it can be that they feel at home in the outdoors, or who have asked themselves how nature can be a source of meaning.

To make this book accessible and inspiring, I quote not only philosophers but also many nature writers and outdoor enthusiasts

First Book:

Jasper van Buuren

Body and Reality

An Examination of the Relationships between the Body Proper, Physical Reality,
and the Phenomenal World Starting from Plessner and Merleau-Ponty

Publisher: Transcript Verlag ISBN: 978-3-8376-4163-9 Number of pages: 312

Topic:

What is our ultimate reality: the physical universe or the world of everyday-life experience? Only a philosophy of the body can answer this question.

Abstract:

Is materialism right to claim that the world of everyday-life experience – the phenomenal world – is nothing but an illusion produced in physical reality, notably in the brain? Or is Merleau-Ponty right when he defends the fundamental character of the phenomenal world while rejecting physical realism? I address these questions by exploring the nature of the body proper in Merleau-Ponty and Plessner, arguing that physical and phenomenal realism are not mutually exclusive but complementary. The argument includes a close examination of the relationships between scientific and pre-scientific perspectives, between living and non-living things, and between humans and animals.