The Man Who Walked Through Signs

Colin Fletcher, Robert S. Corrington, and the ‘Depth Dimension’ of Nature Naturing

Authors

  • Robert W King Utah State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v8i2.223

Keywords:

Ecstatic Naturalism, Corrington, Peirce, Grand Canyon, Fletcher, Thoreau

Abstract

The concept of a depth dimension in nature is developed in Robert S. Corrington’s systematic extension of Peirce’s pragmatic metaphysics. To discern or experience the depth dimension of nature is to recognize the sublime power of nature naturing and of the powerful productivity of nature evidenced in its product, nature natured. The potency of nature naturing is evident, for example, in the geological formations of the Grand Canyon and in The Man Who Walked Through Time (1967), Colin Fletcher’s narration of a two-month solo trek into the depths of the Grand Canyon. In Corrington’s words, ‘A potency is an unconscious momentum within the heart of nature naturing that moves outward into the world of orders by ejecting some kind of orderly sign or system from its hidden depths’. Fletcher’s pilgrimage narrated a growing attunement to these ‘hidden depths’ and serves as an empirical, inductive account articulating the potencies of Ecstatic Naturalism.

Author Biography

  • Robert W King, Utah State University
    Lecturer in English Utah State University PhD in English, University of Utah 2005 Areas of Expertise: 19th-Century American Lit Literature of the American Southwest Pragmatism: Dewey, Peirce, James

References

Childs, C. 2004. The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival (New York: Little, Brown & Co.).

Corrington, R.S. 1993. An Introduction to C.S. Peirce: Philosopher, Semiotician, and Ecstatic Naturalist (Lanham: Rowman & Little

Published

2014-08-28

How to Cite

King, R. W. (2014). The Man Who Walked Through Signs: Colin Fletcher, Robert S. Corrington, and the ‘Depth Dimension’ of Nature Naturing. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 8(2), 223-235. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v8i2.223