In ”The Pine Island Paradox,” author Kathleen Dean Moore posits that our notions about nature are antiquated.

Moore, who chairs the Department of Philosophy at Oregon State University, claims that unlike the view of many of our philosophical forbears, humans are inherently connected to the natural world.

”We who live in a world mapped by Western philosophy live in a world of islands,” she writes. ”While people of wisdom in virtually all cultures studied the continuities that link human and nature, near and far, the sacred and the mundane into one Whole, Western philosophers were busy making distinctions.”

Moore’s essays all make the connections of all life.

Topics range from a universal note of longing found in nature and music to a favorite vacation spot and a thieving back yard jay.

Hers is a self-described ecology of caring.

Moore is the founding director of the OSU Spring Creek Project for ideas, nature and the written word. She is the author of ”Riverwalking,” winner of the Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Award, and ”Holdfast,” winner of the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Discover, Audubon, Orion and Field and Stream.

Published by Milkweed Editions, ”The Pine Island Paradox” is a 251-page hardcover. It retails for $20.

Contact: 800-520-6455.