Introduction
Philosophers have long pondered the natural world, but with the threat of climate change,
concerns about environmentalism are more significant than ever. This feature covers the fields of environmental ethics and aesthetics.
Read on to learn more about these fields and find resources for further study. And remember to celebrate Earth Day on April 22!
Next Steps
If you'd like to explore more thematic content relevant to climate change, environmental justice, and nature, check out the Environmental Justice & Earth Day feature at the Media Studies Research Guide, which includes music, novels, feature films, and documentaries on these topics.
Environmental Ethics
The field of environmental ethics considers what our responsibilities are for protecting the environment and natural resources.
Examples of questions that philosophers in this field think about are:
- Should humans continue to manufacture gasoline-powered vehicles?
- Is it ethical for humans to cause the extinction of a species for the convenience of humanity?
- Is it morally permissible to cull feral animals to protect an ecosystem?
- Does the natural environment and its contents hold moral status?
Environmental Ethics by ISBN: 0745627374Publication Date: 2003-11-07This book introduces environmental problems and environmental ethics and surveys theories of the sources of the problems. Attfield advocates biocentric consequentialism among theories of normative ethics. The possibilities of ethical consumerism and investment are discussed, and the nature and basis of responsibilities for future generations in such areas as sustainable development are given detailed consideration.
Silent Spring by ISBN: 0395453895Publication Date: 1987-09-01Though now over 50 years old, this book is still important as an account of how man is poisoning the environment.
Environmental Ethics by ISBN: 9789042025950Publication Date: 2009-01-01This book shows that environmental protection is a global concern that must enlist all of humanity's cultural, religious, and moral resources. The nine essays in this volume explore the foundations of environmental ethics in the Western philosophical tradition as well as from the perspectives of Christianity, Islam, Daoism, and Buddhism and propose morally responsible attitudes towards nature and the environment.
Refounding Environmental Ethics by ISBN: 9781439900833Publication Date: 2011-11-04Minteer considers the implications of John Dewey's pragmatist philosophy for environmental ethics, politics, and practice. He provides a new and compelling intellectual foundation for the field, one that supports a more activist, collaborative and problem-solving philosophical enterprise.
- Butler, W. F. and Acott, T. G. (2007). "An inquiry concerning the acceptance of intrinsic value theories of nature." Environmental Values 12(2): 149-168.
- Ferré, F. (1996). "Persons in Nature: Toward and Applicable and Unified Environmental Ethics." Ethics and the Environment 1: 15-25.
- Ladkin, D. (2005). "Does 'Restoration' Necessarily Imply the Domination of Nature?" Environmental Values 14: 203-19.
- Bioethics Literature Database
- "Environmental Ethics" (Ben A. Minteer, nature.com)
- "Environmental Ethics" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Environmental Aesthetics
The field of environmental aesthetics investigates the essence and appreciation of natural beauty.
Examples of questions that philosophers in this field think about are:
- What is the aesthetic significance of the natural world?
- What is the relationship between environmental aesthetics and environmental ethics?
- Is scientific knowledge necessary to an aesthetic appreciation of nature?
- What are the proper objects and modes of appreciating natural beauty?
The Aesthetics of Natural Environments by ISBN: 1551114704Publication Date: 2004-01-01The Aesthetics of Natural Environments is a collection of essays investigating philosophical and aesthetics issues that arise in our appreciation of natural environments. The topics covered include the nature and value of natural beauty, the relationship between art appreciation and nature appreciation, the role of knowledge in the aesthetic appreciation of nature, the importance of environmental participation to the appreciation of environments, and the connections between the aesthetic appreciation of nature and our ethical obligations concerning its maintenance and preservation.
The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature by ISBN: 9780199286997Publication Date: 2006-01-06Malcolm Budd presents four interlinked essays addressing all the main problems about the aesthetics of nature. These include: how the aesthetic appreciation of nature should be understood; the character of an aesthetic response to nature; what kinds of aesthetic experience nature affords and what kinds of aesthetic judgement it is amenable to; the aesthetic significance of intrusions by humanity into nature; whether aesthetic judgements about nature can be objectively true; the doctrine of positive aesthetics with respect to nature; the aesthetic significance of knowledge of nature and in particular whether scientific knowledge is necessary for serious aesthetic appreciation of nature; and the correct model for the appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature.
Environment and the Arts by ISBN: 0754605434Publication Date: 2002-06-28Including new work by the leading international contributors to environmental aesthetics, this is the first book to deal with the relations between the arts and environment, directed towards a non-philosophical audience of practitioners and critics, as well as theorists. Introducing many of the basic ideas and issues in the theory of the arts, particularly as they bear on environment, this book addresses the special concerns of an aesthetics of environment and explores the implications of environmental aesthetics for understanding both aesthetic theory and the aesthetic of individual arts.
- Bannon, B. E. (2011). "Re-Envisioning Nature: The Role of Aesthetics in Environmental Ethics." Environmental Ethics 33: 415-436.
- Brady, E. (2014). "Aesthetic Value, Ethics and Climate Change." Environmental Values 23: 551-70.
- Matthews, P. (2002). "Scientific Knowledge and the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60: 37-48.
- Paden, R., Harmon, L. K., and Milling, C. R. (2012). "Ecology, Evolution, and Aesthetics: Towards an Evolutionary Aesthetics of Nature." British Journal of Aesthetics 52: 124-139.
- "Environmental Aesthetics" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- "Environmental aesthetics" (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy)