In defense of the land ethic : essays in environmental philosophy

Book

In defense of the land ethic : essays in environmental philosophy / J. Baird Callicott.

Summary:

In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy brings into a single volume J. Baird Callicott’s decade-long effort to articulate, defend, and extend the seminal environmental philosophy of Aldo Leopold. A leading voice in this new field, Callicott sounds the depths of the proverbial iceberg, the tip of which is “The Land Ethic.”

“The Land Ethic,” Callicott argues, is traceable to the moral psychology of David Hume and Charles Darwin’s classical account of the origin and evolution of Hume’s moral sentiments. Leopold adds an ecological vision of organic nature to these foundations.

How can an evolutionary and ecological environmental ethic bridge the gap between is and ought? How may wholes―species, ecosystems, and the biosphere itself―be the direct objects of moral concern? How may the intrinsic value of nonhuman natural entities and nature as a whole be justified?

In addition to confronting and resolving these distinctly philosophical queries, Callicott engages in lively debate with proponents of animal liberation and rights―finally to achieve an integrated theory of animal welfare and environmental ethics. He critically discusses the land ethic that is alleged to have prevailed among traditional American Indian peoples and points toward a new and equally revolutionary environmental aesthetic. -- Amazon

Record details

ISBN: 0887068995
ISBN: 9780887068997
ISBN: 0887069002 (pbk.)
ISBN: 9780887069000 (pbk.)
Physical Description: x, 325 pages ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, ©1989.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-313) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Introduction: The real work -- 1. Animal liberation and environmental ethics -- Animal liberation: a triangle affair -- Review of Tom Regan, The case for animal rights -- Animal liberation and environment ethics: back together again -- 2. A holistic environmental ethics -- Elements of an environmental ethic: moral considerability and the biotic community -- The conceptual foundations of the land ethic -- The metaphysical implications of ecology -- 3. A non-anthropocentric value theory for environmental ethics -- Hume's is/ought dichotomy and the relation of ecology to Leopold's land ethic -- One the intrinsic value of nonhuman species -- Intrinsic value, quantum theory, and environmental ethics -- 4. American Indian environmental ethics -- Traditional American Indian and Western European attitudes toward nature: an overview -- American Indian land wisdom?: sorting out the issues -- 5. Environmental education, natural aesthetics, and E.T. -- Aldo Leopold on education, as educator, and his land ethic in the context of contemporary environmental education -- Leopold's land aesthetic -- Moral considerability and extraterrestrial life.