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Quote by David Abram

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The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-human World

This book delves into the ways in which our senses and language influence our interaction with the environment, advocating for a more-than-human perspective on the natural world. more

Author

David Abram
David Abram

David Abram is an American philosopher known for his research in environmental philosophy and philosophy of perception. His works explore the relationship between humans and the natural world, as well as how language, culture, and perception shape our perception of reality. more

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“The telling of stories, like singing and praying, would seem to be an almost ceremonial act, an ancient and necessary mode of speech that tends the earthly rootedness of human language. For narrated events always happen somewhere. And for an oral culture, that location is never merely incidental to those occurrences. The events belong, as it were, to the place, and to tell the story of those events is to let the place itself speak through the telling.”

HumansStoriesSeemsHappensEarthCultureSpeakLanguageEventsPrayingSpeechSingingAncientLocationHuman LanguageAbramRootedness
Book:The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-human World
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“For the Amahuaca, the Koyukon, the Apache, and the diverse Aboriginal peoples of Australia - as for numerous other indigenous peoples - the coherence of human language is inseparable from the coherence of the surrounding ecology, from the expressive vitality of the more-than-human terrain. It is the animate earth that speaks; human speech is but a part of that vaster discourse.”

HumansEarthSpeakLanguageExpressionSpeechAustraliaDiverseEcologyDiscourseVitalityIndigenousInseparableExpressiveTerrainAboriginalCoherenceIndigenous PeopleHuman Language
Book:The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-human World
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“In the absence of any written analogue to speech, the sensible, natural environment remains the primary visual counterpart of spoken utterance, the palpable site, or matrix wherein meaning occurs and proliferates. In the absence of writing, we find ourselves situated in the field of discourse as we are embedded in the natural landscape; indeed, the two matrices are not separable. We can no more stabilize the language and render its meanings determinate than we can freeze all motion and metamorphosis within the land.”

WritingTwoLanguageNaturalEnvironmentWrittenLandFieldsSpeechRemainsAbsencePrimariesLandscapeVisualsSensibleSiteDiscourseFreezeEmbeddedUtteranceNatural EnvironmentMetamorphosisCounterpartsAnalogue
Author:David Abram
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“No event for the Koyukon - or for most other indigenous peoples - is ever entirely meaningless or accidental, but neither is any event entirely predetermined or fated. Rather like the trickster, Raven, who first gave it its current form, the sensuous world is a spontaneous, playful and dangerous mystery in which we participate, an articulate and improvisational field of powers ever responsive to human actions and spoken words.”

WorldFirstsHumansActionFormLanguageMysteryDangerousEventsFieldsCurrentsMeaninglessSpontaneousIndigenousSpoken WordRavensIndigenous PeopleSensuousHuman ActionsPredeterminedTricksters
Author:David Abram
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“Languages are fluffy big pillows stuffed between nations - what others say is muffled and nearly lost in them, and when we speak their grammar we get feathers in our mouth. It's worth it. What pleasure to phrase an idea, even in child's words, slowly, and sail it across the gulf in another language to a different-speaking human being!”

HumansChildrenIdeasDifferentBigsLostSpeakLanguageNationsHuman BeingsPleasureMouthsPhrasesSailWorth ItFeathersGrammarPillowFluffy
Author:Richard Bach
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“You know, this dialogue is only helpful when we come, both of us, to a point where we realize that no dialogue is possible, that no dialogue is necessary. When I say understanding or seeing, they mean something different to me. Understanding is a state of being where the question isn't there any more. There is nothing there that says, "Now I understand!" That's the basic difficulty between us. By understanding what I am saying, you are not going to get anywhere.”

KnowsMeanDifferentStatesLanguageUnderstandingRealizingSeeingDifficultyDialogueHelpful
Author:U.G. Krishnamurti
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