What is 'nature'? In what sense are humans parts of it? And why, if at all, should we strive to conserve it? Environmental issues raise a host of fascinating philosophical questions. Yet all too often these questions are tackled in an overly abstract way, one that fails to account for what it is like to experience the natural world. The Presence of Nature takes a different approach. Drawing on the philosophical tradition of phenomenology as well as a number of literary sources, Simon James takes a refreshingly new perspective on a range of topics, including animal consciousness, the moral imperative to conserve nature and the view that the natural world exists independently of human concerns. In so doing, he develops an original approach to environmental philosophy, one that takes seriously the various ways we encounter the natural world in the living of our lives.