David Abram - Work

Work

David Abram's writing is informed by his work with indigenous peoples, as well as by the American nature-writing tradition that stems from Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. His philosophical work is informed by the European tradition of phenomenology — in particular, by the work of the French phenomenologist, Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Abram's work has also been influenced by his friendships with the archetypal psychologist James Hillman and with the radical social critic, Ivan Illich — as well as by his esteem for the American poet Gary Snyder and the agrarian poet and essayist Wendell Berry. In 1988, while pursuing his doctorate, David was invited by the maverick ecologist Paul Shepard to temporarily fill Shepard's teaching position (while Shepard pursued a year's research overseas), as Visiting Professor of Ecology and Natural Philosophy at the Claremont Colleges in California. Since that time, Abram has offered seminars at universities around the world, while nonetheless maintaining his independence from the institutional world of academia. His ideas have often been debated (sometimes heatedly) within the pages of Environmental Ethics and the Journal of Environmental Philosophy, an academic journal dedicated to matters of environmental philosophy.

In 2001, the New England Aquarium and the Orion Society sponsored a large public debate between David Abram and distinguished biologist E. O. Wilson, at Faneuil Hall in Boston, on science and ethics. (An essay by Abram that grew out of that debate, entitled "Earth in Eclipse," has been published in several versions). In the summer of 2005, Abram delivered a keynote address for the United Nations “World Environment Week” in San Francisco, to 70 mayors from the largest cities around the world. Abram founded the Alliance for Wild Ethics with several colleagues in 2006. He is profiled in the 2007 book, Visionaries: The 20th Century’s 100 Most Inspirational Leaders and was named by the Utne Reader as one of a hundred visionaries currently transforming the world, He has been the recipient of numerous honors, including fellowships from the Rockefeller and Watson Foundations. The father of two small children, David Abram lives in the foothills of the southern Rockies.