Comentário do Professor Max Oelschlaeger

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.

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."