Structure

The Spell of the Sensuous is a philosophical investigation, and, as such, is a reasoned defense of a thesis where both goals and thesis are well-defined. Abram’s goals are clear and set forth in his preface: to “provide a set of powerful conceptual tools for my colleagues in…environmental activism” (x) and “to provoke new thinking within the international realm of scholars, scientists, and educators—many of whom have been strangely silent in response to the rapid deterioration of wild nature, the steady vanishing of other species, and the consequent flattening of our human relationships” (x). As a philosophical treatise, Abram states exactly what he is trying to get readers to accept—that the advent of the abstract alphabet has disconnected humans from the animate earth, and, in turn, all beings—human and nonhuman— have suffered consequences. The main thesis remains the focus of the book...