Wisdom of Trees

David Macauley is Academy Professor and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Penn State University. Laura Pustarfi is a Lecturer in Philosophy and Religion as well as Director of the Certificate Program at the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

"The Wisdom of Trees is a significant and timely work. It advances critical conversations about arboreal ontology, environmental ethics, and the political status of nonhuman beings. It also models how interdisciplinary scholarship can illuminate urgent ecological questions. For scholars, teachers, and researchers seeking to deepen their understanding of human–tree relations, this volume offers both intellectual rigor and imaginative possibility. It invites readers not only to think about trees but to think with them—an invitation that feels increasingly vital in an era of ecological precarity." — H-Net Reviews (H-Environment)"This richly varied collection offers a fascinating path through a forest of ruminations on trees from a wide range of perspectives. Replete with vivid insights into the arboreal universe, the disciplinary range of the contributions is remarkably broad and their topics even more so. This is a unique contribution." — Arnold Berleant, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, C. W. Post Center, Long Island University

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsForewordJoan MaloofIntroduction: The Wisdom of TreesDavid Macauley and Laura PustarfiTrees as BeingsInterstice: Redwood1. Arboreality: Trees as Ontologically Valuable BeingsLaura Pustarfi2. In the Beginning She Was a Redwood: Rethinking Ontology through an Ecofeminist MaterialismKimberly CarforeThe Language of TreesInterstice: The Forest3. Speaking Trees: The Language of Nature and Arboreal CommunicationLuke Fischer4. The Silence of Primeval ForestsDaniel O'Dea BradleyThinking (Like) TreesInterstice: Arborescence5. Vegetal Imagination: Schelling and Whitehead as Exemplars of Marder's Plant-ThinkingMatthew David SegallTrees and TimeInterstice: Rings6. "Old Trees Hold Memory": Aboriginal Australian Perspectives on Memory, Trauma, and Witnessing in the Arboreal WorldJohn Charles Ryan7. Birth and Death in TreesAlphonso LingisThe Place and Ecology of TreesInterstice: Banyan8. The Place of Trees: Taking Trees over the EdgeMichael Marder and Edward S. Casey9. Organisms and Environments: What Alexander von Humboldt Learned from TreesDalia NassarTrees and AestheticsInterstice: Cypress10. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Tree: Appreciating the Beauty of the Arboreal WorldDavid Macauley11. Do Trees Sing?David RothenbergTrees and EthicsInterstice: Apple12. The Ponderosa Pines of Gold Creek: Discerning Arboreal Values for an All-Too-Human WorldJames Hatley13. Wise Trees: Exemplars in the Arts of East AsiaMara MillerLegal and Political TreesInterstice: Eucalyptus14. Philosophers with a Peculiarly Instructive Aversion toward TreesSam Mickey15. Trees as Legal PersonsEric W. OrtsAfterword: The Sequoia ArchipelagoDon Hanlon JohnsonSuggestions for Further ReadingContributorsIndex