Earth

Abstract

Existentialism’s focus on the individual and the human condition may appear to be alien to ecological thinking. Existentialism has been criticized for its anthropocentrism and egocentrism, and as this chapter describes, Sartre often described nature as a threat to human subjectivity and freedom. Yet other existentialist thinkers, particularly Nietzsche, Camus, and Heidegger, along with the poet Rilke, urged concern for the earth, critically rethinking the human role in nature. The critique of human arrogance and of idealist dismissal of the earthly realm by Nietzsche, reverent descriptions of nature by Camus and Rilke, and the critique of technology in Heidegger are shown to all contribute to reconsidering existentialism as an ecologically minded philosophy.