Forum on Religion and Ecology: Spotlights

3.24 Freya Mathews and the Dao of Civilization

Sam Mickey Season 3 Episode 24

This episode of Spotlights features Freya Mathews, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Latrobe University, and author of several books, including The Ecological Self (1991, reissued with new intro in 2021), For Love of Matter: A Contemporary Panpsychism (2003), Reinhabiting Reality: Towards a Recovery of Culture (2005),  and her new book, The Dao of Civilization: a Letter to China (2023). We discuss her personal and professional path toward metaphysics, conservation ethics, and ecological civilization, with special attention to the unique role that Indigenous and Daoist principles can play in contemporary global society. This episode begins with a few verses from a poem, “Let the Mountain be your Temple,” by Freya Matthews.