Gilbert LaFreniere (born 1934 in New York) is an American
ecological philosopher, active in the study of geology, ecology, and human impact upon nature.
Biography
Gilbert attended the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...
and earned a Masters of Geology from
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
before completing a Ph.D in intellectual history from the
University of California at Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
, (UCSB) in 1976.
LaFreniere taught
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
, environmental ethics, and
environmental history
Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa.
Environmental history first emerged in the United States out of th ...
for more than twenty-five years at
Willamette University
Willamette University is a private liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated ...
in Salem, Oregon.
He remains an active Professor Emeritus and continues to lecture on the transformation of natural landscapes by man, appearing at Willamette University, Portland State University, and Oregon State University in the last few years.
Many of his lectures rely heavily on his own travels and photography of the national parks of Europe, New England, California, the Pacific Northwest, and Canada.
LaFreniere is also a noted scholar of the work and thought of the French philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
and the Idea of Progress and appears in the Card Catalog of the Rousseau Library in
Montmorency, France.
Gilbert's most recent book is ''The Decline of Nature'' (2008).
Among his other publications are the book ''Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Idea of Progress'' (1976)
and articles in ''Environmental History Review'',
''Agriculture and Human Values'',
and ''The Trumpeter''.
See also
*
Environmental ethics
In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resourc ...
*
Environmental philosophy
Environmental philosophy is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the natural environment and humans' place within it. It asks crucial questions about human environmental relations such as "What do we mean when we talk about nature?" "What ...
*
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
*
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science.
From the ancient wo ...
*
List of environmental philosophers
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
List of historians of science
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:LaFreniere, Gilbert
Green thinkers
1935 births
Living people
Historians of science
Intellectual historians
Environmental historians
Willamette University faculty
Activists from New York City