John van Buren

Professor of Philosophy
Director, Environmental Studies
Director, Peace and Justice Studies
Collins Hall, Room 111
[email protected]
718-817-3301

John van Buren’s primary research and teaching areas are environmental philosophy, 20th century continental philosophy, and ancient philosophy. He is currently completing the book Environmental Historiographies of Philosophy: From Natural History to Philosophy's Future Today, which studies how environmental history was used in the ancient, medieval, and modern periods to write histories of philosophy, and argues for the contemporary relevance of this historiographical method. His 2018 monograph (co-authored with Baird Callicott and Keith Brown), Greek Natural Philosophy: The Presocratics And Their Importance For Environmental Philosophy (Cognella Press), presents a reading of Greek natural philosophy through the lens of contemporary environmental science and philosophy. His earlier monograph, The Young Heidegger: Rumor of the Hidden King (Indiana University Press, 1994) pioneered research about the historical influences of Aristotle, Duns Scotus, and modern thinkers on the formative early years of the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. He co-edited (with Theodore Kisiel) Reading Heidegger from the Start: Essays in His Earliest Thought (SUNY Press, 1994). He is translator (with commentaries) of Martin Heidegger, Ontology—The Hermeneutics of Facticity (Indiana University Press, 1999) and Martin Heidegger, Supplements: From the Earliest Essays to Being and Time and Beyond (SUNY Press, 2002). He has published numerous articles in anthologies and journals, including Research in Phenomenology and Environmental Ethics. He is series editor (with Baird Callicott) of the SUNY Press book series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics, which has published 20 volumes since 2002.