Balkan Journal of Philosophy

Volume 8, Issue 1, 2016

Environmental Ethics

Silviya Serafimova
Pages 61-70

Whose Mountaineering? Which Rationality?
The Role of Philosophy of Climbing in the Establishment of 20th-century Norwegian Ecophilosophies

The article discusses the genealogy of 20th-century Norwegian ecophilosophies as deriving from a specific philosophy of climbing, one which is irreducible to philosophy of alpinism so far as it is based on the principle of cooperation and on the intrinsic value of interacting with the mountain rather than on competition, which makes the mountain an arena for sport activities. In this context, the expression to think like a mountain will be analyzed as something more than an impressive metaphor, and examined as a new way of thinking that avoids the extremes of both radical anthropocentrism and biocentrism.