ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 explores the philosophical foundations of Terrapsychological Inquiry (TI), a qualitative research methodology for learning about and appreciating how nature, place, and matter occupy the human psyche, which in turn hosts moods, images, dreams, and metaphors that allow us to understand more about the world we live in and the impact we have on it. TI ontology and epistemology assumes a participatory world best studied through direct participation rather than positivist emotional distancing that only captures objects and things from the outside. Key commitments of TI are included, as is an example of two prominent thought leaders from different cultures who share a perception that human consciousness partakes directly of the world through the body: Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Thich Nhat Hanh. The chapter concludes with a reexamination of animism, a belief widely shared by indigenous cultures and still living as a marginalized but increasingly expressed perspective in the scientific West.
