Environmental Philosophy/Ethics: An Overview by J. Baird Callicott Visiting Senior Research...
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Environmental Philosophy/Ethics: An Overview by J. Baird Callicott Visiting Senior Research Scientist University Distinguished Research Professor Regents
Environmental Philosophy/Ethics: An Overview by J. Baird
Callicott Visiting Senior Research Scientist University
Distinguished Research Professor Regents Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies National
Socio-environmental Synthesis Center Annapolis, Maryland September
9, 2014
Slide 2
Outline Origins of environmental philosophy and ethics as an
academic field Social context Major precursors Agenda-setting
seminal text: Lynn White Jr.s Historical Roots Seminal text: Aldo
Leopolds A Sand County Almanac Major fault-lines Major sub-fields
My areas of particular interest
Slide 3
Origins of Environmental Ethics as an Academic Field of Study
First college course1971, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point by
J. Baird Callicott First published papers1973, 1975: The Shallow
and the Deep, Long-range Ecology Movements: A Summary, by Arne
Naess (Norway) Is There a Need for a New, an Environmental Ethic?
by Richard Routley (Australia) Is There an Ecological Ethic? by
Holmes Rolston III (USA)
Slide 4
Origins of Environmental Ethics as an Academic Field of Study
First journal1979 Environmental Ethics: An Interdisciplinary
Journal Dedicated to the Philosophical Aspects of Environmental
Problems Eugene C. Hargrove, founding editor First conference
proceedings: Philosophy and Environmental Crisis, William T.
Blackstone, editor (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974)
First monograph: Mans Responsibility for Nature: Ecological
Problems and Western Traditions, by John Passmore (New York:
Charles Scribners Sons, 1974)
Slide 5
Origins of Environmental Ethics as an Academic Field of Study
J. Baird Callicott Arne Nss Richard Sylvan (Francis Richard
Routley) Holmes Rolston III Eugene C. Hargrove John Passmore
Slide 6
Callicott Naess Routley Rolston Hargrove Passmore
Slide 7
Context of Environmental Ethics as a Field of Study
Environmental Crisis of the 1960soil spills on beaches, rivers
polluted with municipal and industrial waste, indiscriminate use of
pesticides, smog over big cites (esp. LA and Houston) Crisis
LiteratureSilent Spring by Rachael Carson (1962) The Quiet Crisis
by Stewart Udall (1963) Unrest on College CampusesProtest against
war in Viet Nam, Civil Rights Movement> demand for relevancy in
the classroom Photos of a beautiful blue planet Earthtaken by
Apollo 8, 10, & 11 astronauts (including by the late Neil
Armstrong) from the moon. First National Earth Day1970sponsored by
Representative Pete McCloskey (R. Cal.) and Senator Gaylord Nelson
(D. Wis.)
Slide 8
Major Precursors of Environmental Ethics Henry David Thoreau
John Muir Aldo Leopold HDT: Nature has higher usesaesthetic,
spiritual, as well as material anthropocentric (human-centered) /
cultural ecosystem services JM: Snakes, bears, alligators have
rights & intrinsic value non-anthropocentric / individualistic
AL: A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,
stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it
tends otherwise. non-anthropocentric / holistic 1817-1862 1838-1914
1887-1948
Slide 9
Agenda-Setting Seminal Text of Environmental Ethics Lynn White
Jr., The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic CrisisScience 155 (1967):
1203-1207 (LW: historian of technology) Whites Argument: Modern
technology > environmental crisis Technology as old as humanity:
flaked stones, sharpened-stick spears, bows-and-arrowsall
technologies Modern technology = technology informed by science
(previously knowledge-for-knowledges sake), beginning in 18 th
century. Aggressive technology and the Scientific Revolution began
in Christendomin Western Europe in late Middle Ages. (Judeo-)
Christian worldview set out in the Holy Bible Therefore, the
historical roots of our ecologic crisis are traceable to the
Judeo-Christian biblical worldview.
Slide 10
Agenda-Setting Seminal Text of Environmental Ethics The J-C
biblical worldviewthe Big Pictureset out in Genesis 1 Man alone is
created in the image of God; to have dominion over the animals
(Gen. 1:26)both male and female (Gen. 1:27) God commands them to be
fruitful and multiply; replenish the earth; and subdue it
(Gen.1:28) Aldo Leopold anticipates Whites analysis: Conservation
is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic
concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity
belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we
belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. That land is
a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be
loved and respected is an extension of ethics.
Slide 11
Agenda-Setting Seminal Text of Environmental Ethics Beneath the
lurid and cavalier environmental critique of the J-C worldview is a
more general subtext, repeated again and again as a kind of
refrain: What shall we do? No one yet knows. Unless we think about
funda- mentals, our specific measures may produce backlashes. What
people do about their ecology [environment] depends on what they
think about themselves in relation to things around them. What we
do about ecology [the environment] depends on our ideas of the
man-nature relationship. We must rethink and refeel our nature and
destiny.
Slide 12
Agenda-Setting Seminal Text of Environmental Ethics Whose
professional remit is it to think about fundamentals? philosophers,
thats who. In the early 1970s, White made some of us philosophers
feel like only we could save the world from a worsening
environmental crisis. Because to do anything effective about it
depended on first thinking about the man-nature relationshipor so
White insisted. So, here was the agenda for a future environmental
philosophy: 1.Critique our inherited ideas about (a) human nature,
(b) Nature, and (c) the human-Nature relationship. Not all such
ideas are biblical. What about ancient Greek philosophy? What about
Cartesian dualism? Newtonian mechanism? Lockean private property?
Etc. 2.Think up new, better, more environment-friendly ideas about
(a) human nature, (b) Nature, and (c) the human-Nature
relationship.
Slide 13
Agenda-Setting Seminal Text of Environmental Ethics How do we
think up new ideas about (a) human nature, (b) Nature, and (c) the
human-Nature relationship? White offered two suggestions: (1) look
for recessive memes in the history of Western philosophy (in his
own case, St. Francis of Assisi who preached to animals and
converted a rogue wolf to Christianity); (2) turn to Asian
traditions of thought for conceptual resources (in his case, Zen
Buddhism, popularized by D. T Suzuki, Alan Watts, and Gary Snyder)
(1)Naess found Spinozas philosophy to be environmentally friendly,
others offered up Pythagoras, Heraclitus, A. N. Whitehead, etc. (2)
In addition to Zen Buddhism, Daoism was especially appealing from
an environmental point of view; and the renowned world religions
scholar Huston Smith wrote an essay titled Tao Now!
Slide 14
Agenda-Setting Seminal Text of Environmental Ethics (3) I
followed Aldo Leopold who found a new natural philosophy or
worldview in evolutionary biology and ecology. (a)Human nature:
humans are an evolved species, existing as a part of, not apart
from, the rest of Nature. (b) Nature: not a collection of
externally related objects, but a network or system of co-evolved
and interrelated parts of an integrated whole. (c) The human-Nature
relationship: Not one of dominance and control, but of coexistence,
harmony, cooperation, and partnership.
Slide 15
Seminal Text of Environmental Ethics On first encounter, the
book seems like a hodge-podge of essays, wildly varying in length
and topic, divided into three parts: I. the shack sketches
organized by months of the year and all set on the Leopold
farmstead. II. Sketches Here and There scattered across the
continent and spanning a lifetime of experience III. The Upshot
with its climactic The Land Ethic All united and driven by a single
overarching theme: the exposition and promulgation of an
evolutionary-ecological worldview and its axiological and normative
implications
Slide 16
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Anthropocentrism vs
Non-anthropocentrism Anthropocentrism: human action > affects
> environment > affects > other humans for better or worse
Example Rachel Carson: bioaccumulation of organochlorides causes
cancer in humans But her title Silent Spring expands
anthropocentrism in the direction indicated by ThoreauNature has
higher uses; humans may be deprived of bird songs and many other
psycho-spiritual resources (or cultural services).
Slide 17
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Anthropocentrism vs
Non-anthropocentrism Non-anthropocentrism: human action >
affects > environment itself for better or worse Forms of
non-anthropocentrism: animal rights (mammals) based on a Kantian
platform (Tom Regan) animal liberation (vertebrates) based on a
utilitarian platform (Peter Singer) biocentrism (all organisms)
based on a Kantian platform (Paul Taylor) ecocentrism (species,
ecosystems, biotic communities based either on a Kantian platform
(Lawrence Johnson) or on a Humean/Darwian platform (me)
Slide 18
Slide 19
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Instrumental vs
Intrinsic Value Instrumental value: The value of something as a
means to anothers ends Paradigm cases: cars, clothes, tools, etc.
Problematic cases: humans (human trafficking) Intrinsic value: The
value of something as an end in itself Paradigm cases: human beings
Problematic cases: animals of various sorts; species; biodiversity;
ecosystems Not mutually exclusive: many things have both kinds of
value Paradigm cases: employees; spouses Problematic cases: animals
of various sorts; species biodiversity; ecosystems
Slide 20
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Instrumental vs
Intrinsic Value Things having instrumental value are amenable to
economic valuation: (1) via the market (cars, clothes, tools,
animals of various kinds, etc.) (2) via the ingenuity of
environmental economists to assign a shadow price for things not
traded in marketse.g.: (a) travel-cost methode.g., for national
parks money spent on gasoline, lodging, meals, fees, foregone
income, etc., x number of visitors (b) hedonic pricinge.g., price
of an ocean-front house in Carmel vs. same house in Bakersfield (c)
contingent valuatione.g., asking people how much they would pay for
a clear view of Mexico from Big Bend NP free of maquiladora air
pollution or to know that snail darters are safe from extinction =
total bids after protest bids are discarded
Slide 21
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Instrumental vs
Intrinsic Value Things having intrinsic value are not amenable to
economic valuation. Indeed one function of assigning intrinsic
value to something is to remove it from the econosphere paradigm
case: the prohibition of slavery (and all forms of human
trafficking) Corollary 1: intrinsic value existence value;
existence value can be shadow priced; things of intrinsic value
should not be Corollary 2: all values are not preferences. E.g.,
slavery is contrary to our transcendent values interesting case:
the prohibition of trade in ivory, rhino horn, and other parts of
endangered species
Slide 22
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Instrumental vs
Intrinsic Value All values are of subjective provenance. Value is
not an objective property like mass or velocity. Only when things
are valued do they have value. Preferences are literally
objectified via the marketthe built and manufactured environment
reveals our human preferences. Transcendent values (including
intrinsic value) are objectified, in a democratic form of
governance, through rational debate, legislation, and jurisprudence
Quantification of intrinsic value: penalties and sanctions
associated with harming things having intrinsic value provides a
measure of how much intrinsic value society accords things
legislatively or jurisprudentially awarded it.
Slide 23
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Instrumental vs
Intrinsic Value Interactions between things having intrinsic value
and things having only instrumental value in the real world
(1)Trade-offs: Having intrinsic value shifts the burden of proof
from defender to destroyer. Legal analog: innocent until proven
guilty Economic analog: Safe Minimum Standard alternative to
Benefit-Cost Analysis (2) Unintended effect: Creates a black market
in things having intrinsic value Examples: human trafficking and
trafficking in animals and animal parts of species listed under
CITES
Slide 24
The US ESA and CITES (both enacted in 1973) thus implicitly
assign intrinsic value to listed species. UN Convention on
Biological Diversity (1992): Conscious of the intrinsic value of
biological diversity and of the ecological, genetic, social,
economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and
aesthetic values of biological diversity and its components... UN
Earth Charter (2000): 1. Respect Earth and life in all its
diversity. a. Recognize that all beings are interdependent and
every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human
beingswhich is one definition of intrinsic value. The difference
between 1973 and 1992/2000: Environmental philosophers created a
discourse for an otherwise inchoate value intuition. Major Fault
Lines in Environmental Ethics: Instrumental vs Intrinsic Value
Slide 25
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Individualism vs.
Holism Modern Western ethics has been both militantly
anthropocentric and militantly individualistic Animal liberation
and animal rights are non-anthropocentric, but also
individualistic. Biocentrism (all organisms) is also
individualistic But distinctly conservation/environmental concerns
are holistic: species extinction (not specimens), biotic
communities, ecosystems, biodiversity
Slide 26
Major Fault Lines in Environmental Ethics: Individualism vs.
Holism Aldo Leopold: All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single
principle: that the individual is a member of a community of
interdependent parts. Ecology simply expands the boundary of the
community to include plants, animals, soils, and waters or
collectively: the land. A land ethic changes the role of Homo
sapiens from conqueror of the land community to plain member and
citizen of it; it implies respect for fellow-members and for the
community as such. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the
integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is
wrong when it tends otherwise.
Slide 27
Major Sub-fields in Environmental Philosophy: Ecofeminism
Emerged in the 1980s as a synthesis of environmental ethics and
feminist philosophy Main premise: feminist analysis of social
injustices: a logic of oppression based on historical hierarchical
dualisms male/female; civilized/savage; master/slave can be applied
to the human/nature relationship Principal architects: Karen J.
Warren, Val Plumwood, Greta Gaard
Slide 28
Major Sub-fields in Environmental Philosophy: Environmental
Pragmatism Emerged in the 1980s as an application of classic
American Pragmatism (C. S Peirce, Wm. James, John Dewey) to
environmental concerns Main approach: prioritize policy; treat
theory as a tool kit; pluralistic. Generally hostile to intrinsic
value of nature and militantly anthropocentric Principal
architects: Bryan G. Norton, Andrew Light, Paul Thompson
Slide 29
Major Sub-fields in Environmental Philosophy: Comparative
Environmental Philosophy Emerged in the 1980s as a synthesis of
comparative philosophy (Western with non-Western, mainly Asian) and
environmental philosophy Main premise: Non-western traditions of
thought (Buddhist, Daoist Confucian, various indigenous) represent
rich conceptual resources for environmental philosophy and ethics
Principal architects: J. B. Callicott, C. K. Chapple, Mary E.
Tucker
Slide 30
Major Sub-fields in Environmental Philosophy: Ecophenomenology
Emerged in the 1990s as an application of Continental philosophy
(Husserl, Heidegger, Meleau-Ponty, Levinas, Foucault) to
environmental issues and concerns Main focus: describing lived
experience of nature, human relationships with animals, emphasis on
place and particularity, hostility to both science and ethics
Principle Architects: Ed Casey, Irene J. Klaver, Ted Toadvine
Slide 31
Major Sub-fields in Environmental Philosophy: Environmental
Justice Emerged in the 1990s as an application of theories of
social justice (Rawls, Nussbaum, Sen) and race and class theory to
unjust environmental inequities Main premise: There is no human
relationship with nature, because different groups of humans have
differential impacts on nature; environmental benefits and harms
are distributed unjustly Principle architects: Rob Figueroa, Bill
Lawson, Kyle Powys Whyte
Slide 32
Major Sub-fields in Environmental Philosophy: Climate Ethics
Emerged in the 1990s in response to the globalization of the
environmental crisis in the 1980s: biodiversity loss, thinning of
the ozone membrane, global climate change. Main focus:
international environmental justice (those most vulnerable are
those least responsible) and intergenerational justicein response
to the planetary spatial and millennial temporal scales of climate
change Principle architects: Michel Serres, Dale Jamieson, Stephen
Gardiner
Slide 33
My Areas of Particular Interest Theoretical Environmental
Philosophy and Ethics
Slide 34
My Areas of Particular Interest The Aldo Leopold Land
Ethic
Slide 35
My Areas of Particular Interest Comparative Environmental
Philosophy
Slide 36
My Areas of Particular Interest Philosophy of Ecology and
Conservation Biology