Glenn Deliège
 

A short CV
I have obtained both my licenciate and Mphil in philosophy at the KU Leuven. In 2006 I obtained a PhD-fellowship from the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) and I am subsequently working on a PhD thesis at the Institute for Philosophy, KU Leuven, where I am connected to the Husserl-Archives: Centre for Phenomenology. I have previously been guest-editor of a special issue on environmental philosophy of Ethical Perspectives journal (Ethical Perspectives 14/4, December 2007).

Areas of interest in environmental philosophy:
My main interest in the field of environmental philosophy lies in philosophical questions surrounding nature conservation, preservation, restoration and spatial planning. The desire to protect nature for itself in special conservation and preservation areas is a relative novelty in our (Western) societies, and poses difficult questions with regards to what we actually mean when we talk of preserving nature per se. What do we understand to be the nature we want to protect in our reserves? What is the relation between the specific tradition of nature veneration in Western culture and our preservationist preconceptions? What are or should be the priorities in preservation and conservation? What is the relation between nature, wilderness and biodiversity? What is the driving force underneath our desire to protect nature? What do we believe to be at stake when we worry about the degradation of our natural environment, what is addressed in our fear for environmental melt-down? How do anthropological questions concerning the man/nature relationship affect our preconceptions about preservation and conservation? Do we have moral, aesthetic, religious reasons to protect nature, or only instrumental ones? I strongly believe that environmental philosophy can have a say on these matters, however, I do not believe that it will find anything meaningful to say unless it is prepared to let itself be guided by the philosophical analysis of the often tacit answers these questions already get within concrete conservation, preservation and restoration practices. I am currently working on a PhD-project that hopes to address at least some of these questions.

Keywords: Philosophy of preservation/restoration, history of preservation, philosophy of geography, (environmental) hermeneutics, biodiversity, landscape-theory

My publications include:

• Deliège, G. (2007). Toward a Richer Account of Restorative Practices. Environmental Philosophy, 4(1-2), 135-147
• Deliège, G., Neuteleers, S. (2008). Het (niet)bestaande milieudebat: 20 jaar milieufilosofie in Vlaanderen. Filosofie en praktijk, 29(4), 41-54.
• Deliège, G. (2009). Restoring or restorying nature?. In: Bergmann S., Scott P., Jansdotter Samuelsson M., Bedford-Strohm H. (Eds.), Nature, Space and the Sacred. Transdisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 189-199). Aldershot: Ashgate.

Contact details:
Glenn Deliège
Husserl-Archives: Centre for Phenomenology
Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven
Kardinaal Mercierplein 2,
3000 Leuven,
Belgium
tel.: + 32 16 32 63 29
glenn.deliege@hiw.kuleuven.be