In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy brings into a single volume J. Baird Callicotts 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 Darwins classical account of the origin and evolution of Humes 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 wholesspecies, ecosystems, and the biosphere itselfbe 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 rightsfinally 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.
Bringing together ecology, evolutionary moral psychology, and environmental ethics, J. Baird Callicott counters the narrative of blame and despair that prevails in contemporary discussions of climate ethics and offers a fresh, more optimistic approach. Whereas other environmental ethicists limit themselves to what Callicott calls Rational Individualism in discussing the problem of climate change only to conclude that, essentially, there is little hope that anything will be done in the face of its "perfect moral storm" (in Stephen Gardiner's words), Callicott refuses to accept this view. Instead, he encourages us to look to the Earth itself, and consider the crisis on grander spatial and temporal scales, as we have failed to in the past. Callicott supports this theory by exploring and enhancing Aldo Leopold's faint sketch of an Earth ethic in "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest," a seldom-studied text from the early days of environmental ethics that was written in 1923 but not published until 1979 after the environmental movement gathered strength.
CHOICE 1999 Outstanding Academic Title A sequel to Callicott's pioneering work, In Defense of the Land Ethic, Beyond the Land Ethic engages a wide spectrum of topics central to the field, including the troubled relationship of environmental philosophy to current mainstream academic philosophy; the relationship of recent developments in evolutionary and ecological sciences to the Leopold land ethic long championed by the author; the perennial debates in environmental ethics about the ontological status of intrinsic value and the necessity of moral pluralism; the metaphysical implications of ecology and the New Physics as manifest in agriculture, medicine, and industrial technology; and the philosophical dimensions of conservation biology and "clinical ecology.
The environmental crisis is global in scope, yet contemporary environmental ethics is centered predominantly in Western philosophy and religion. Earth's Insights widens the scope of environmental ethics to include the ecological teachings embedded in non-Western worldviews. J. Baird Callicott ranges broadly, exploring the sacred texts of Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism, as well as the oral traditions of Polynesia, North and South America, and Australia. He also documents the attempts of various peoples to put their environmental ethics into practice. Finally, he wrestles with a question of vital importance to all people sharing the fate of this small planet: How can the world's many and diverse environmental philosophies be brought together in a complementary and consistent whole?
A lucid, original, and useful work by a fine scholar already well known in the emerging field of environmental philosophy."--David Abram, University of Kansas "A lucid, original, and useful work by a fine scholar already well known in the emerging field of environmental philosophy."--David Abram, University of Kansas
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