Abram argues that before we can think conceptually about the world, we must first participate with it. The sensuous encounter is not a lesser form of knowing that gets upgraded to conceptual knowledge, it is the foundation from which concepts can meaningfully emerge.

The child who has spent time dwelling with trees, feeling the texture of the bark, watching squirrels navigate the branches, noticing how shade feels different under an oak versus a pine, hearing the music of wind through the leaves... that is a child who has already developed a rich, embodied knowledge of the trees. That child knows trees through... See more

We teach about ecosystems, about weather patterns, about photosynthesis always at a level of removal from the actual sensuous participation in these acts that might help us understand them more fundamentally. What if this is backwards? What if sensuous participation in the world isn’t the thing we need to get past in order to reach real learning,... See more

David Abram is a philosopher and ecologist and in the book he argues that our shift toward alphabetic literacy fundamentally changed how we perceive the world. Before writing systems that could be divorced from place and season, oral cultures maintained what he calls “sensuous participation” with the animate earth. Knowledge isn’t something to... See more