Comentário do Professor Max Oelschlaeger, Northern Arizona
University, na tese de Mauro Grün, "Gadamer e a alteridade da natureza:
Elementos para uma Educação Ambiental"
Commentary
by Professor Max Oelschlaeger, Northern Arizona University, on Mauro Grün's
thesis, "Gadamer and the Otherness of Nature: Elements for an
Environmental Education"
"I recommend
Mr. Grün's thesis as "Passed with no requirement for correction or
amendment." As a frequent referee of manuscripts interfacing philosophical
and ecological materials, including environmental education, I believe that the
ms. (with some stylistic revisions) would merit serious consideration leading
to publication by an academic press. My baseline for evaluation of a ms. is
that the ideas therein are not a reworking of the obvious, but an innovation
that, while rooted in soils prepared by others, is genuinely a new growth.
"Gadamer and the Otherness of Nature" passes that test, especially
since it reads Gadamer in a way that few within either philosophical or
educational epistemic communities have recognized as possible. The primary
stylistic change required for publication as a book rather than thesis would be
for Mr. Grün to write more in his own voice, and less in voice punctuated with
"Gadamer says....
" I am entirely confident Mr. Grün could do this. Referees for publication by an academic press might also provide constructive commentary for final revisions. Most of my remarks below (listed under the formally requested report categories) are in that vein, and are not to be construed as suggested revisions for the thesis.
" I am entirely confident Mr. Grün could do this. Referees for publication by an academic press might also provide constructive commentary for final revisions. Most of my remarks below (listed under the formally requested report categories) are in that vein, and are not to be construed as suggested revisions for the thesis.
1. The thesis as a whole is a substantial and original contribution to knowledge of the subject with which it deals.
Environmental
education is a growing field in Australia, the United States, and elsewhere.
The institution where I presently work has numerous faculty and students vested
in "environmental education" as a professional practice, and a far
larger number engaged in environmental education across the curriculum —
identified on campus as "The Ponderosas Project" (the ponderosa pine
being the dominant indigenous species of tree). I read Mr. Grün 's thesis as
articulating a philosophical rationale for the vision inherent in the Ponderosa
Project. In many ways the rationale for the Ponderosa Project remained
implicit, buried in catch phrases such as "the greening of the
curriculum," "basic environmental literacy," and
"sustainability studies." Grün offers what the Ponderosa Project —
and I would believe similar projects elsewhere — lacks: namely, a strong philosophical
rationale. In fact, Grün actually challenges environmental educators to rethink
the enterprise in which they are engaged, that is, as an activity that is less
about environmental literacy and sustainability and more about our humanity
itself.
Grün
appropriately uses Chet Bower's writings in his work, but goes beyond Bower's
largely deconstructive treatment of education. Bower's arguments ironically
perpetuate the modern Cartesian paradigm which he is critiquing. Grün, while
critical of modernity, offers a constructive alternative that utilizes what I read
as Gadamerian-Heideggerian-Wittgensteinian strategies that disclose the natural
world which modern discourse (and its institutionalization in the modern
university) conceals. Grün 's writing is also accessible in ways that Bower's
often is not.
Which is to
say then that Grün 's potential audience is quite large, in America, and in all
nations where the issues of environmental education and its underlying
rationale are living. If the ms. were to be revised for submission to an
academic press, then appropriate "bridging material" from the work as
it stands to it's application would need to be added.
2. The candidate shows familiarity with, and the understanding of, the relevant literature.
Mr. Grün
uses a wide array of materials, ranging from classic Greek texts to
contemporary Anglo-American and continental philosophy, without falling into
the trap of providing nothing more than an "intellectual collage."
There is a drive to the thesis, a marshaling of the forces for the argument,
that brings his interpretations together in a forceful conclusion. Higher level
graduate students are often "pushed around" by the materials they
used, that is, incapable of reading the material in constructive and innovative
ways. Grün reads constructively and innovatively.
3. The thesis provides a sufficiently comprehensive study of the topic.
As a thesis
the work as it stands is sufficient. Revised for submission as a book addressed
to environmental educators and/or institutions of higher education more
generally the book would need to expand beyond the specificity of the situation
in Brazil to a global perspective.
Presumably
higher education across the planet must ultimately serve the purposes of
cultural adaptation — both the acquisition of knowledge and its dissemination.
And in the context of cultural adaptation, as Grün argues, the ethical
dimension of environmental education is crucial, not only in giving voice to
areas of silence, but also in countering deeply ingrained cultural tendencies,
such as the Cartesian project of the mastery of nature. Where Grün 's thesis is
the most persuasive and insightful for this reader is the tying of the
philosophical evaluation to the questions of human being — especially the
fundamental question of linguisticality.
4. The techniques adopted are appropriate to the subject matter and are properly applied.
The scandal
of philosophy is, of course, that no two philosophers ever agree about
anything. So Grün 's "techniques" might be described in diverse ways
— as an exercise in Gadamer's hermeneutics, as an application of continental
philosophy, or as the utilization of philosophical pragmatism. So categorized,
the reader might render a judgment of proper application to the subject matter.
However, an
alternative is to judge Grün 's project on the basis of the reasoned assessments
by the sages of contemporary environmentalism, who argue that there are no
solutions for the pervasively dysfunctional relations between cultural and
natural systems without a philosophical reconsideration of our fundamental
self-conceptions. Who are we? Where are we going? And why?
So
positioned, Grün 's project is a strong evaluation of the system of higher
education (in Brazil, of course, but elsewhere) that as constituted perpetuates
failed notions of humanity as the masters and possessors of nature. Through a
philosophically informed as distinct from a narrowly technical system of
environmental education, Gran argues, the repositioning of humanity within a
natural world, concealed by the Cartesian/modernist overdetermination of the
system of higher education, becomes possible.
5. The results are suitably set out, and accompanied by adequate exposition.
As with
Gadamer, Grün avoids messianic proclamations and conclusions. He does, however,
set out clearly the results he has labored to achieve. Humanity is at risk
partly because of a system of higher education that conceals the otherness of
nature so fundamental to the realization of our own humanity. The dominant
system of higher education is itself a performance facilitated by and
perpetuated through the figuration of Cartesianism/modernism. Hermeneutics
reveals the contingencies of that language game, and the absence of
metaphysical necessity. Thus, the utility of modernism as a system for the
organization civilization — and higher education — is increasingly in question.
Environmental education becomes one of the modalities through which the
otherness of nature, and the significance of otherness, is affirmed.
6. The quality of English and general presentation are of a standard for publication.
Unquestionably
excellent. For submission as a book manuscript — at least judged on the
stylistic requirements of American academic presses — editorial changes that
support more of "conversational" rather than a "formal"
style would be appropriate. But as a thesis/dissertation the quality of English
and presentation are excellent."
