Blog #12 Austin Justice

Throughout the entirety of Bruce V. Foltz's The Noetics of Nature: Environmental Philosophy and the Holy Beauty of the Visible, he wants to explore a fundamental feature of humanity: why we wish to witness God in each and every instance in our lives. Indeed, an individual’s interaction with God is predominantly predicated upon a complete “cleansing of consciousness,” and often requires one who is “pure in heart” (Foltz 209). In contemporary times, common culture tends to experience its own being, rather than retaining a sense of self-emergence. Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher known for his existential exploration of existence, stated that “nature, as a realm of objectivity, was itself shaped historically through the onto-theological concept of nature as ens creatum” (Foltz 212). He firmly believed in the idea that the existence of created, internal individuals was a direct result of a non-created, external individual. While he initially introduces this idea in an attempt to elaborate on philosophical and religious items, Heidegger simply supposed that nature subsisted as a site for God, which is why walking into the wilderness soothes the soul and helps the heart to heal. I noticed this about the natural environment as I walked through heavily forested areas in my hometown of Mason, Ohio.