Abstract
This paper looks at some of the ways in which environmental philosophers have sought to press ecological concepts into the service of environmental ethics. It seeks to show that although ecology plays a major role in opening our eyes to sources of value in the natural world, we should not necessarily attempt to build our account of nature’s value upon the concepts which ecology supplies. No description is going to capture nature’s essence; no formula is going to demonstrate its value. We should recognise the natural world as a particular historic individual and relate to it accordingly. This means acknowledging its value in a contingent, conditional and provisional way, and recognizing its value as a precondition of the value of our own lives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, J.C. (1993) Species equality and the foundations of moral theory. Environ. Values 2, 347–65.
Attfield, R. (1991) The Ethics of Environmental Concern, 2nd edn. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Brennan, A. (1988) Thinking About Nature. London: Routledge.
Brundtland, G.H. (1987) Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Callicott, J.B. (1989) In Defense of the Land Ethic. New York: SUNY Press.
Cheetham, T. (1993) The forms of life: complexity, history, and actuality. Environ. Ethics 15, 293–311.
Clements, F. (1949) Dynamics of Vegetation. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company.
Costanza, R., Norton, B.G. and Haskell, B.D., eds, (1992) Ecosystem Health: New Goals for Environmental Management. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Dawkins, M. (1980) The Science of Animal Welfare. London: Chapman & Hall.
Egerton, F.N. (1973) Changing concepts of the balance of nature. Quart. Rev. Biol. 48, 322–50.
Elliot, R. (1982) Faking nature. Inquiry 25, 81–93.
Elton, C.S. (1927) Animal Ecology. London: Methuen.
Epictetus (1977) Enchiridion. In Classics of Western Philosophy. (S.M. Cahn, ed.) pp. 225–39. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Gleason, H.A. (1927) Further views on the succession concept. Ecology 8, 299–326.
Goodin, R.E. (1992) Green Political Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Howarth, J.M. (1995) The crisis of ecology. Environ. Values 4, 17–30.
Johnson, L.E. (1991) A Morally Deep World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Katz, E. (1985) Organism, community and the substitution problem. Environ. Ethics 7, 241–56.
Lawton, J. (1991) Are species useful? Oikos 62, 3–4.
Leopold, A. (1949) A Sand County Almanac. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lovelock, J.E. (1979) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miles, J. (1979) Vegetation Dynamics. London: Chapman & Hall.
Mill, J.S. (1969) Nature. In Three Essays on Religion. pp. 3–65. New York: Greenwood Press.
Nietzsche, F. (1974) The Gay Science (W. Kaufmann, translation) New York: Vintage Books.
O’Neill, J. (1992) The varieties of intrinsic value. The Monist 75,119–37.
Passmore, J. (1980) Man’s Responsibility for Nature, 2nd edn. London: Duckworth.
Reznek, L. (1987) The Nature of Disease. London: Routledge.
Rodman, J. (1977) The liberation of nature? Inquiry 20, 83–145.
Rolston III, H. (1990) Duties to ecosystems. In Companion to a Sand County Almanac (J.B. Callicott, ed.). Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Ruskin, J. (1907) Modern painters, Vol. 5. London: Dent.
Shrader-Frechette, K. and McCoy, E.D. (1994) How the tail wags the dog: how value judgements determine ecological science. Environ. Values 3, 107–20.
Sober, E. (1986) Philosophical problems for environmentalism. In The Preservation of Species: the Value of Biological Diversity (B.G. Norton, ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Strong, D. (1994) Disclosive discourse, ecology, and technology. Environ. Ethics 16, 89–102.
Sylvan, R. (1985) A critique of deep ecology,No. 12, discussion papers in Environmental Philosophy. Canberra: Australian National University.
Tansley, A. (1935) The use and abuse of vegetational concepts and terms, Ecology 16, 284–307.
Taylor, P. (1986) Respect for Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wittgenstein, L. (1967) Philosophical Investigations, 3rd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.
Worster, D. (1977) Nature’s Economy: a History of Ecological Ideas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Chapman & Hall
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Holland, A. (1996). The use and abuse of ecological concepts in environmental ethics. In: Cooper, N.S., Carling, R.C.J. (eds) Ecologists and Ethical Judgements. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6965-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6965-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-412-70980-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-6965-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive