A new way of understanding our place in the web of life from a scholar praised for his "graceful prose" ( Publishers Weekly).
The disconnection between humans and nature is perhaps one of the most fundamental problems faced by our species today. This schism is arguably the root cause of most of the environmental catastrophes unraveling around us. Until we come to terms with the depths of our alienation, we will continue to fail to understand that what happens to nature also happens to us.
In The Biology of Wonder Andreas Weber proposes a new approach to the biological sciences that puts the human back in nature. He argues that feelings and emotions, far from being superfluous to the study of organisms, are the very foundation of life. From this basic premise flows the development of a "poetic ecology" which intimately connects our species to everything that surrounds us-showing that subjectivity and imagination are prerequisites of biological existence.
Written by a leader in the emerging fields of biopoetics and biosemiotics, The Biology of Wonder demonstrates that there is no separation between us and the world we inhabit, and in so doing it validates the essence of our deep experience. By reconciling science with meaning, expression, and emotion, this landmark work brings us to a crucial understanding of our place in the rich and diverse framework of life-a revolution for biology as groundbreaking as the theory of relativity for physics.
"Grounded in science, yet eloquently narrated, this is a groundbreaking book. Weber's visionary work provides new insight into human/nature interconnectedness and the dire consequences we face by remaining disconnected." -Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods

Dr. Andreas Weber is a German academic, scholar and writer who holds degrees in Marine Biology and Cultural Studies. Andreas explores new understandings of life-as-meaning or "biopoetics" and "biosemiotics" in science and in the arts, and his work has been translated into several languages and published around the globe.

Foreword by David Abram
Introduction: Towards a Poetic Ecology

Part One: Cells with Aspirations
Chapter 1: The Desire for Life
Chapter 2: The Machine That Can Die
Chapter 3: The Physics of Creation

Part Two: The Language of Feeling
Chapter 4: World Inscape
Chapter 5: Affective Neuroscience: Mind as Symbol of the Body

Part Three: I am Thou
Chapter 6: The Question in the Eyes of the Wolf
Chapter 7: Learning to Think: Mirroring the Other

Part Four: Life as Art
Chapter 8: Melody of the Soul
Chapter 9: The Principle of Beauty

Part Five: Symbioses
Chapter 10: The Body of the Sea
Chapter 11: Not One, But All
Chapter 12: The Silvery Sea

Part Six: Healing
Chapter 13: Ethics: The Values of the Flesh
Chapter 14: Enlivenment: Ecological Morals as Mutuality in Beauty

Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Index
About the Author