In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy

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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.

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Contents

Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics
13
Animal Liberation A Triangular Affair
15
Review of Tom Regan The Case for Animal Rights
39
Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics Back Together Again
49
A Holistic Environmental Ethic
61
Elements of an Environmental Ethic Moral Considerability and the Biotic Community
63
The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic
75
The Metaphysical Implications of Ecology
101
Intrinsic Value Quantum Theory and Environmental Ethics
157
American Indian Environmental Ethics
175
Traditional American Indian and Western European Attitudes Toward Nature An Overview
177
American Indian Land Wisdom? Sorting Out the Issues
203
Environmental Education Natural Aesthetics and ET
221
Aldo Leopold on Education as Educator and His Land Ethic in the Context of Contemporary Environmental Education
223
Leopolds Land Aesthetic
239
Moral Considerability and Extraterrestrial Life
249

A Nonanthropocentric Value Theory for Environmental Ethics
115
Humes IsOught Dichotomy and the Relation of Ecology to Leopolds Land Ethic
117
On the Intrinsic Value of Nonhuman Species
129
Notes
267
Index
315
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About the author (1989)

J. Baird Callicott is Professor of Philosophy and Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. He is editor of Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy with Roger T. Ames, published by SUNY Press, Companion to a Sand County Almanac: Interpretive and Critical Essays, and author of Clothed-in-Fur and Other Tales: An Introduction to an Ojibwa World View with Thomas W. Overholt.

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