The Meaning Of Travel (philosophers Abroad)

By (author) Thomas Emily
Short description/annotation
The first ever history of the places where history and philosophy meet, from the Age of Discovery in the sixteenth century to contemplation of how space travel will affect our understanding of who we are in the twenty-first. This book will reshape your understanding of travel.
Description
"This is the finest kind of travel: not just across continents, but through time, space and our infinite minds. The journey is the joy, and Emily Thomas a terrific guide." - Mike Parker How can we think more deeply about travel? This was the question that inspired Emily Thomas journey into the philosophy of travel. Part philosophical ramble, part travelogue, The Meaning of Travel begins in the Age of Discovery, when philosophers first started taking travel seriously. It meanders forward to consider Montaigne on otherness, John Locke on cannibals, and Henry Thoreau on wilderness. On our travels with Thomas, we discover the dark side of maps, how the philosophy of space fuelled mountain tourism, and why you should wash underwear in woodland cabins... We also confront profound issues, such as the ethics of ''doom tourism (travel to ''doomed'' glaciers and coral reefs), and the effect of space travel on human significance in a leviathan universe. The first ever history of the places where history and philosophy meet, this book will reshape your understanding of travel.
Table of contents
Travelling well: top 10 vintage trips 1: What is travel? Montaigne and otherness 2: What are maps? Brian Harley on cartographic deception 3: Francis Bacon on exploration and apocalyptic philosophy of science 4: Innate ideas on Descartes, Locke, and Cannibals 5: Why did tourism start? A grand tale of education and sex 6: Travel writing, thought experiments, and Margaret Cavendish''s ''Blazing World'' 7: Mountain travel and Henry More''s philosophy of space 8: Edmund Burke and sublime tourism 9: Wilderness philosophy, Henry Thoreau, and cabin porn 10: Is ''travel'' a male concept? 11: The ethics of doom tourism 12: Will space travel show the Earth is insignificant? Returning home: top 10 vintage trips Notes Select Bibliography Index
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Emily Thomas combines a personal voice with highly informative, well-researched glimpses of particular philosophical travellers... It''s accessible and it''s entertaining, but also opens up interesting philosophical ideas. It''s very original.
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Emily Thomas has used her command of the philosophical canon to extend our understanding of an impulse that many of us share but few examine in such depth. The Meaning of Travel is a manifesto for the virtues that travel can bestow on the traveller not just an increase in knowledge, but a deep humility at the scale and diversity of the world, and an enduring wonder that we live on such a planet.
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No one could ask for a more congenial companion than Emily Thomas on her 2,000-plus year journey through The Meaning of Travel ... an engaging primer on how travel has transformed both what we know and how we think.
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Exceptionally thoughtful.
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Given our Covid confinement, "The Meaning of Travel" could not have come at a more poignant and appropriate time this profound little book explores why humans choose to wander from their homes with no ostensible purpose other than to make the excursion in question... Thomas is particularly engaging on the subject of the wilderness, and an account of a trip she made by herself to Alaska runs parallel with her broader inquiry.
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Novelty, knowledge and insight can be found in travel. It can make us wiser as well as better-informed ... having read this book, I am now both.
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Emily Thomas''s original and fun book The Meaning of Travel is my top pick in a year when