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Fisher: I think the No. 1 thing is being in harmony with nature: seeing the light move through at different times of day, feeling the air move through the building, seeing trees and bushes and these little courtyards — that notion of biophilia.

Thus American society stands broadly convicted of necrophilia — as opposed to biophilia.

"There's an idea called biophilia that basically says that our evolution over hundreds of thousands of years has got us to have more of a connection or a love of natural living things," said Strayer, a professor of psychology.

Scientists today refer to the biophilia hypothesis, in which we are — as the name suggests — drawn to nature through deeply evolved attractions to favorable landscapes.

In these gentle but stirring essays, writer Kay Harel happily diagnoses Charles Darwin with “a singular case of biophilia,” or profound love of life, that engenders empathy, creativity and an intuitive sense of truth.