In 1971, at a time of enormous political and social change, two of the world's leading intellectuals, Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, were invited by the Dutch philosopher Fons Elders to debate the question: is there an 'innate' human nature independent of our experiences and external influences?Their debate was one of the most provocative and original debates to have occurred between contemporary philosophers and serves as a concise introduction to their respective philosophical...

The volume documents, and makes an original contribution to, an astonishing period in twentieth-century philosophy-the progress of Arne Naess's ecophilosophy from its inception to the present. It includes Naess's most crucial polemics with leading thinkers, drawn from sources as diverse as scholarly articles, correspondence, TV interviews and unpublished exchanges. The book testifies to the skeptical and self-correcting aspects of Naess's vision, which has deepened and broadened to include...