FOREIGN HANSER RIGHTS - Hanser Literaturverlage

FOREIGN
HANSER
RIGHTS
Michael Hampe
Tunguska oder Das Ende der Natur
Tunguska or the Death of Nature
320 pages with b/w illustrations. Hardcover
Publication date: August 29, 2011
P H I LO S O P HY
Climate change, environmental destruction, nutrition: all today’s burning issues
centre on nature. But what in fact do we mean when we talk about nature? What
is it we are intent on protecting? Philosopher Michael Hampe presents some
controversial answers.
Four men – a physicist, a philosopher, a biologist and a mathematician – are adrift in a ship
on the sea. In dense fog, they get involved in a discussion about the Tunguska event which
occurred in 1908 – the explosions and lightning that devastated a vast woodland area in
Siberia. To this day, no one knows exactly what happened, and the four scholars seem unable
to agree on any one explanation. Instead, the question of how the Tunguska mystery might
be resolved by applying the established natural laws results in a principle debate on the
definition of nature itself. Perhaps it is the world as it was before the intervention of homo
sapiens? Or merely a game of chance? Is it intrinsically good or evil? Are humans part of it
or not? Or is it ultimately nothing but a brainchild spawned by man’s imagination?
Michael Hampe stages a fictional debate on a cohesive concept of nature, the meaning of
which we are all convinced we know. Climate change, nutrition and sustainability: all today’s
burning issues centre on nature. Nature has also been a central philosophical issue for 2000
years. The ideas and arguments from the past are an invaluable contribution to the current
debate. Following his meditations on a perfect life (Das vollkommene Leben), Hampe has
further honed his art of philosophical dialogue: this book is guaranteed to give you plenty
of food for thought as well as keeping you entertained.
Michael Hampe
born in Hanover in 1961, studied philosophy, literature, psychology and biology at Heidelberg
and Cambridge. He has been Professor of Philosophy at Zurich’s ETH since 2003,
following spells in the same role in Dublin, Kassel and Bamberg. His most recent publication
at Hanser was Das vollkommene Leben (Vier Meditationen über das Glück, 2009).
Sales to Foreign Countries
Das vollkommene Leben: Netherlands (Wereldbibliotheek), Spain (Círculo de Lectores),
USA/UK (Atlantic Books)