Environmental Philosophy E-Book

Simon P. James

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 376

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Climate change, habitat loss, rising extinction rates - such problems call for more than just new policies and practices. They raise fundamental questions about the world and our place in it. What, for instance, is the natural world? Do we humans belong to it? Which parts of it are we morally obliged to protect?

Drawing on an exceptionally wide range of sources, from virtue ethics to Buddhism, leading environmental philosopher Simon P. James sets out to answer these vitally important questions.

The book begins with a discussion of animal minds, before moving on to explore our moral relations with non-human organisms, ecosystems and the earth as a whole. James then considers environmental aesthetics, humanity's place in the natural world and the question of what it means to be wild. In the concluding chapter, he applies his findings to the topic of global climate change, building a strong moral case for urgent action.

This accessible, entertainingly written book will be essential reading for students of the environment across the humanities and social sciences. It will, moreover, be an ideal guide for anyone keen to deepen their understanding of environmental issues.

Leseprobe

Copyright © Simon P. James 2015

The right of Simon P. James to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2015 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

350 Main Street

Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4546-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4547-6 (pb)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9139-8 (epub)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8485-7 (mobi)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

James, Simon P.

    Environmental philosophy: an introduction / Simon P. James.

        pages cm

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-0-7456-4546-9 (hardback) – ISBN 978-0-7456-4547-6 (paperback) 1.  Environmental sciences – Philosophy. 2.  Environmental ethics. I.  Title.

    GE40.J358 2015

    363.7001–dc23

                                                 2014031199

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Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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For Helen

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following: Simon Summers, Leigh Mueller, and two anonymous reviewers for the feedback they provided on a draft of the manuscript; David E. Cooper, Ian J. Kidd, Wendy Parker and Andy Hamilton for the very helpful comments they provided on drafts of individual chapters; my wife, Helen, for all sorts of things, including her devastating criticism (see chapter 4, note 5) of the first draft of the Introduction; my students at Durham – particularly those who have attended my lectures for ‘Ethics and Values’ and ‘Applied Ethics’; Alex Newbrook for introducing me to Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach and, in particular, for his helpful ‘lions versus leopards’ example, which I have stolen and used in chapter 2; Mike Hannis and Patrick Curry for making me think about place-attachment and nonhuman valuers, respectively; and Liz McKinnell for (I think) coming up with the metaphor of applying coloured ink to black-and-white photographs, which I use in chapter 4. Chapter 5 draws on material from my article ‘Finding – and Failing to Find – Meaning in Nature’, which appeared in Environmental Values (22 (5), 2013). Furthermore, my discussion of mountaineering ethics in that chapter is loosely based on my article ‘Why Old Things Matter’. I am grateful to Professor S. Matthew Liao, the editor of the Journal of Moral Philosophy, for allowing me to use that material. Finally, I would like to thank Emma Hutchinson, Clare Ansell and Pascal Porcheron of Polity for their help – and, in particular, their patience.

Introduction: What is Environmental Philosophy?

Scientists, economists, politicians and lawyers are not professionally qualified to address all the questions raised by environmental issues. Take the clearing of rainforest to provide open land for cattle ranching. Ecologists can explain the effects of this practice on rainforest ecosystems; economists, politicians and lawyers can assess its financial, political and legal ramifications. But various questions remain: are we morally obliged to protect the rainforests? If so, why are we so obliged? Because they are more useful to us if they are left unfelled? Because they are wild (or at least, wilder than urban parks and botanic gardens)? Because they harbour so many endangered species? Because we owe it to ourselves not to permit such destruction?

These sorts of questions cannot be answered using the methods of science or economics. They cannot be left to politicians and lawyers. It might seem that they could be addressed using the research methods of the social sciences, and it is true that one could use such methods to find out how most people would answer them. But empirical approaches are not enough. For although surveys and the like can tell us what people believe to be right or wrong, they cannot tell us what really is right or what really is wrong. To determine that – or at least to do so in a systematic and critical way – one needs philosophy. (Granted, one could object that when it comes to morality there are no absolute standards and that rightness and wrongness in such contexts are merely matters of opinion. But that is itself a philosophical claim – a statement of moral subjectivism – and in order to assess whether it is true one must, again, do some philosophy.)