To share your reaction on this item, open the Amazon app from the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery
Amazon prime logo
Buy new:
-7% $18.60
FREE delivery Friday, January 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$18.60 with 7 percent savings
List Price: $20.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, January 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Wednesday, January 22. Order within 52 mins.
In Stock
$$18.60 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$18.60
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$15.79
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
100% satisfaction guaranteed. Ships directly from Amazon. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. Ships directly from Amazon. See less
FREE delivery Saturday, January 25 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 52 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$18.60 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$18.60
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology Paperback – August 10, 2017

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 59 ratings

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$18.60","priceAmount":18.60,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"18","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"60","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"oNohZKoNoGJFjRFsn3vJTEAbYqwXABtXowkZKl5lBcJNjXeodsojqG4uVv33XLZfq2mPWbamgXzDQfpm1rPHW8CADcTVtO7hvc86vLV3qhXNFD%2FCxyEr6LUMH%2BPqy6vabZ8xyK98NsFypIcXXB32EQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$15.79","priceAmount":15.79,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"79","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"oNohZKoNoGJFjRFsn3vJTEAbYqwXABtXeGfsxb566MQrpwg3bh84RMgGWNC9hryvmVlZHll%2Fi8ffgkmf%2F9pj9EXauQNuJnnM%2FW4%2F%2FrkaE8aROv5huo88l9lqtDshSRzuRMv87LH9x28P09NuF3E0ns2GMrbA4fTQD9ec8kV5MWSIxczKVglISQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Nautilus Award Gold Medal Winner, Ecology & Environment  

In Matter and Desire, internationally renowned biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber rewrites ecology as a tender practice of forging relationships, of yearning for connections, and of expressing these desires through our bodies. Being alive is an erotic process―constantly transforming the self through contact with others, desiring ever more life.

In clever and surprising ways, Weber recognizes that love―the impulse to establish connections, to intermingle, to weave our existence poetically together with that of other beings―is a foundational principle of reality. The fact that we disregard this principle lies at the core of a global crisis of meaning that plays out in the avalanche of species loss and in our belief that the world is a dead mechanism controlled through economic efficiency.

Although rooted in scientific observation, Matter and Desire becomes a tender philosophy for the Anthropocene, a “poetic materialism,” that closes the gap between mind and matter. Ultimately, Weber discovers, in order to save life on Earth―and our own meaningful existence as human beings―we must learn to love.

The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

This item: Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology
$18.60
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$10.59
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$59.87
Get it Jan 29 - 30
Only 13 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by textbooks_source.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Treatment
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The most powerful antidote to our pernicious culture of excessive material consumption is the creation and nurturing of communities, finding happiness in human relationships rather than seeking it in material possessions. At the very heart of community, at all levels of life, we find a fundamental impulse to establish connections. The author of this beautifully written book identifies this yearning for connections with the essence of love. In his philosophical meditations, Andreas Weber deepens the recent scientific advances toward a new systemic understanding of life by investing them with a vital emotional dimension. While the experience of being fully alive is, for him, an erotic experience, it has also been recognized as the very essence of spirituality. An important and inspiring book!”―Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life; coauthor of The Systems View of Life



“Andreas Weber is an indispensable voice in ecological and philosophical thought. With fearless probity and autobiographical intimacy, Matter and Desire composes the symphonic grand design of desire, relationships, the metaphysics of the body―and much more―as page by page we experience Weber’s elegant subversion of all convenient ways of looking at the natural world. This is a timeless yet urgent, and splendid book.”―Howard Norman, author of I Hate To Leave This Beautiful Place



“Andreas Weber offers us the best medicine I know for a culture benumbed by dead-end pursuits. Pulsing with life, his work delivers us from the centuries-long dichotomies between mind and matter that have robbed us of vitality, joy, and true purpose. It brings us home to the fertile reciprocities that link us with all forms and levels of life; in so doing, it reflects and reinforces great spiritual teachings of our planet.”―Joanna Macy, author of Coming Back to Life



“A slow tidal wave of change is gathering force and will take us beyond the mechanistic world of Newton toward one of becoming. Andreas Weber’s Matter and Desire is a passionate evocation of intermingled life surging. He writes with the poetry, care, and insight that urges us forward.”―Stuart Kauffman, professor emeritus, biochemistry and biophysics, University of Pennsylvania; and MacArthur Fellow



“With a dazzling blend of biological rigor and poetic grace, Andreas Weber explains the principles of erotic connection that lie at the heart of life on Earth. It is a journey that transcends the reductionist taxonomies of modern science and explains the transformational role of desire, interdependence, and meaning in the glorious unfolding of natural ecosystems―and in our own lives. Be prepared for a bracing adventure!”―David Bollier, author of Think Like a Commoner



“When Andreas Weber looks on a meadow, he sees ‘part of our body, folded outward, ready to be strolled through.’ The ocean’s tides are ‘the way the Earth perceives the moon,’ and gravitation is ‘the Earth’s tender longing for us.’ With such graceful, lucid lines, Weber invites us to see a world filled with delight and one that yearns, as we do, for contact: the erotics of encounter. Part scientific reflection, part philosophical reverie, part lyrical benediction for the stones and swifts and plants and water ouzels of his beloved Ligurian countryside, Matter and Desire is a deeply felt book from a profoundly humane writer.”―Fred Bahnson, author of Soil and Sacrament; director, Food, Health, and Ecological Well-Being Program, Wake Forest University School of Divinity



“Every page of Weber’s deeply illuminating new book is a passionate journey into the experience of being alive and in relationship. As an emergent ‘erotic ecology,’ this book is urgently needed medicine for a planet suffering from a shortage of love.”―David Lukas, author of Language Making Nature



“Two hundred years ago, John Keats complained that modern science would ‘unweave a rainbow.’ This visionary and poetic discourse by Andreas Weber achieves the near-miraculous task of reweaving the stunning beauty of the natural world back into the realm of science. Transcending conventional barriers between categories of Western thought, with a style reminiscent of Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Weber explores some profound implications of modern biology and physics, presenting his vision of biology as the erotic science with the recognition that to truly experience love, we need to be fully connected to the creativity of life.”―Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct



“To read this marvellous book is to enter a secret garden where you’ll discover a natural world far more alive, sentient, and meaningful than science has so far dared suppose. With luminous prose Weber’s ‘erotic ecology’ charts a path into a new scientific understanding in which atoms, organisms, and entire ecosystems overflow with purpose, interiority, and psyche, lighting up your life, helping you experience reality with freshness and depth of vision. A masterpiece.”―Dr. Stephan Harding, author of Animate Earth



“A stunning piece of writing, as existential as it is experiential, Matter and Desire delves into the ‘science of the heart’ in compelling prose that frequently dances on the edge of poetry. The book provides vivid depictions of a big love: a near-mystical practice of discovering who we are through the creative energies that surround us and dwell within us. Andreas Weber ably guides his readers on this relational journey, articulating ecological intuitions that may have gone unnoticed yet were always on the tips of our tongues. From the forces of desire within molecules to the mistle thrush’s song vibrating in the evening air, Weber offers a bold and convincing case for the physicality of feeling and the ‘biology of love.’ The result is a profound meditation that bravely explores the subjectivity of a living biosphere and our particular relations within it. If philosophy literally means the love of wisdom, then in Matter and Desire, Weber presents the wisdom of love, a reflective account of his intentional free-fall into the embrace of matter.”―Gavin Van Horn, director, Cultures of Conservation, Center for Humans and Nature



“If what Andreas says is anything to go by―that love permeates all things so intrusively that the world can only be conceived in terms of relationship―then holding this book in your hand is an outrageous act of lovemaking, the breadth and depth of which you will never know! This is a gasp of a book.”―Bayo Akomolafe, author of These Wilds Beyond our Fences

About the Author

Andreas Weber is a Berlin-based philosopher, biologist, and writer. He holds degrees in marine biology and cultural studies, and has collaborated with brain researcher and philosopher Francisco Varela. His books in English include: Enlivenment: Towards a Fundamental Shift in the Concepts of Nature, Culture and Politics (2013); The Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, Feeling, and the Metamorphosis of Science (2016); and Biopoetics: Towards an Existential Ecology (2016). Weber regularly contributes to major newspapers and magazines, such as National Geographic, GEO, and Die Zeit, and has won a number of awards for his writing. He teaches philosophy at Leuphana University, Lüneburg and at the University of Fine Arts, Berlin. Weber has two children, fifteen and seventeen. He lives in Berlin and Italy.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chelsea Green Publishing; First Edition (August 10, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1603586970
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1603586979
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 59 ratings

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
59 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2023
    I set myself up for every summer with this book. It thaws you, and makes you want to get out there and live again. Fully. Beautiful
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2021
    The Solomon's did a great job in getting my book order to me in much less time than stated. They also did a superb job with packaging and labeling the package, "Book, do not bend". I will look for all my book needs through their site. I would highly recommend them for all your book needs.
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2021
    This book is absolutely fantastic!
    It is waking us up to our true identity and connection to nature - and not in a New Agey "magical thinking " way.
    It is well written and does not insult either your IQ or your heart.

    Rare find. I am so glad I found it.
    It is worth every penny !
    5 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2018
    So special, so important.... please read this book! Love IS Life. Andreas Weber beautully illustrates that love is everywhere -?from microbiology to macrocosmic wonders. The recognition that life’s inherent joy is in fact an expression of love changes our daily experience and brings US to life fully. A beautiful, much needed revelation of a book. Never have we needed this truth more.
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2018
    poetic & rich & illuminating. I'm in love with this book!
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2021
    Andreas Weber is an ecophilosopher that describes his field as biopoetics.

    Just a few pages into the book, this designation will become clear to you. Weber's prose is breathtaking and invigorating. He rekindles the sheer awe of aliveness.

    Weber publishes his works in German (although his English is quite good, having heard him give a talk over the past month). A handful of his books have been translated into English. This book's German title was "Lebendigkeit," which I'm told roughly translates to "aliveness." The English title, "Matter & Desire," is a little too reminiscent of philosophies that split the spiritual and the physical, but the subtitle helps to defray this sense a bit, "An Erotic Ecology."

    I learned of this book from the commons scholar, David Bollier, and then note that Weber cites David Abram, a phenomenologist, as one of his biggest influences (I've been influenced by the work of both).

    Maybe it is because of the narrow-mindedness of dominant mythologies, or because of the seeming determinism of our surveillance capitalist society, but sometimes I feel as though the world is a limited place, and this conclusion leads to a diminishing effect on my spirit. This book epitomizes a counter narrative. The world is exploding with possibility, with beauty, with dynamism, and we only need to step out our front door to participate in it.

    One small example of this is with our new puppy, a Cobberdog. I grew up with dogs, but this is the first time I've had one during my adult life. Weber himself regularly cites his poodle as an accomplice in his adventures. Our puppy sees everything as animate and ready to engage. A leaf will scurry across the driveway on a light breeze, and she'll go tearing after it. She'll jump up to nip at the fragrant tips of hemlock as we wander through the woods. She'll go sniff a twig, then maybe carry it with her for a little while. She's always joyful, curious, and inquisitive (although sometime insistent that you join her in these moods). She allows me to step into the attitude that that particular leaf, that particular branch, that particular twig, invited her to play. And it is only because of my domesticated stupor that I'm oblivious to these calls for relationship.

    When reading these pages I'm brought back to Martin Shaw's references to the Maiden Tsar, a Russian Fairytale about the goddess that doesn't love you anymore. I found a 1996 recording from the Minnesota Men's Conference of Robert Bly telling this story, and it actually isn't quite what I thought, in that there is redemption in the end (the love can be rekindled). I prefer to go back to my more starkly romantic and tragic interpretation that I was left with through Shaw's musings—that sometimes, invitations will be available to us for a specific window of opportunity, and forever lost after that. The goddess does love us, but only if we heed her when she calls.

    All of this is to say there's a certain preciousness to aliveness. And I don't mean this in the way that antique chinaware is precious, but rather in the preciousness of the glint in the eye of the baby who will soon be a toddler, or in the preciousness of the golden light at sunset on the fresh yellow leaves in springtime that will soon mature into the deep greens of summer. The world is so magical precisely because of its dynamism. To be alive is to be ever-changing.

    Weber reflects on two kinds of death energy: the death energy of stagnancy, and the death energy of decomposition and renewal. Western culture is rife with the former, and has a dearth of the latter. Death is an aspect of aliveness; the two are fundamentally connected. Remove death, and you life no longer exists. Life is defined by, given meaning by, the inevitability of death. This is what gives up creativity, drive, and drama.

    If you're looking to fall in love again with the more-than-human world, this is a fertile place to begin.
    9 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2018
    Wow!

Top reviews from other countries

  • JN
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on October 1, 2017
    An extraordinary, important and profound work.
  • aidan_ward@antelopes.com
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nature as we need to know her
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2018
    Andreas Weber has an ability to take us way beyond our current conceptions and make propositions we might otherwise reject available to be explored. A lyrical, inspiring and deeply challenging book. Wonderful.