"Environmental Ethics" is a systematic account of values carried by the natural world, coupled with an inquiry into duties toward animals, plants, species, and ecosystems. A comprehensive philosophy of nature is illustrated by and integrated with numerous actual examples of ethical decisions made in encounters with fauna and flora, endangered species, and threatened ecosystems. The ethics developed is informed throughout by ecological science and evolutionary biology, with attention to the logic of moving from what is in nature to what ought to be. The ethical theory is applied in detail to social, public, and business policy. Written in an engaging style, using diagrams and figures as well as numerous case studies, "Environmental Ethics" prods the reader into concrete application and invites reader participation in the ethical discussions. The ethics concludes by exploring the historical experiences of personal residence in a surrounding environment. Here is an adventure into what it means to live as responsible human beings in the community of life on Earth. Author note: Holmes Rolston, III, is Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University and the author of "Science and Religion: A Critical Survey (Temple)".
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Rolston presents a brilliantly provocative challenge for us to think about how we should behave toward the environment. Do we have a "duty" to other living things? Is there a difference between killing for food and hunting deer? Do animalsor plants and other insentient life formshave "rights"? These questions only suggest the wide-ranging concerns Rolston raises to help us develop an ethic and mode of conduct toward the living world. He suggests ways for government, business, and the individual to make philosophical peace with the natural order. A required book for public and natural science collections. Daniel LaRossa, Connetquot P.L., Bohemia, N.Y.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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"By refusing to be pulled toward either an economics-based or a biocentrist position, Rolston bridges an otherwise yawning gap between the two camps... A model of the environmental thinking-and acting-required now and in the future." --Christian Science Monitor "Rolston's incisive logic...poetic insights...and almost conversational style reassure the reader... With luck, lots of people will accompany him on this journey, returning with ideas with which to launch sophisticated discussions of environmental ethics." --Los Angeles Times Book Review "A brilliantly provocative challenge for us to think about how we should behave toward the environment. A required book for public and natural science collections." --Library Journal "Rolston's work--worthy of becoming a classic itself--explores values from several points of view. The work is not a carefully structured argument, but a delightful series of insights and concrete examples leading to a new gestalt a unique groundbreaking work appropriate for all reader levels." --Choice "A lucid introduction to environmental ethics that will be of value to scholars, students, and general readers. Environmental Ethics is packed with information and a good deal of wisdom obviously acquired through long experience." --Edward 0. Wilson, Harvard University "Most insightful and poetic. We need...Rolston's wisdom." --Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Sierra "Rolston's analysis is perceptive philosophy yet accessible to a general audience. His comprehensive scope, accurate references, examples given, and clarity of text make the book invaluable to students of environmental ethics in a very practical way... Rolston clearly makes the case that we now find ourselves standing at an ethical threshold. . What a wonderful effort!" --David Hales, School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan "This work is vintage Rolston, which is very good. He has a wonderful and intimate knowledge of matters environmental, which he again uses here in insightfully new ways... Rolston shows the relevance of an environmental appreciation to fundamental matters of ethical theory. This book reads well, reads easily, reads enticingly." --Donald Scherer, Department of Philosophy, Bowling Green State University
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Environmental Ethics, by Holmes Rolston III, represents one of the most thorough and provocative works in the field of environmental philosophy to date. In addressing the essential question of the intrinsic value of the natural world Rolston is laying the groundwork for a new understanding of humanity's place in the world. Beginning with the simple premise of responsibility, Rolston argues that it is the duty of all humans by virtue of our existence as reasoning beings to protect and conserve the biodiversity and environmental health of the plant. This vital responsibility is intended to inform, not only for our relationship to the world vis a vis own consumptive needs, but in a way that enriches the existential potential of, not only all other forms of life, but the nonsentient ecosystem as well, i.e., mountains, sky, rivers, oceans, earth and rock.
The importance of this kind of radical subjectivity is that it represents the necessary acknowledgement of the interconnectivity of all being. You may be asking yourself, but what does this mean to me as an individual, and why should I care about deforestation taking place in a remote part of the world? The answer Rolston, puts forth is both complex and elegant, in which he argues that the individual values of nature cannot be isolated, due to the inherent connectivity, in a simple pragmatic approach to life. Because since the earth is one great system of interrelationships, with all of the individual constituents relying upon the others in order to function. Thus, if one part is disturbed or destroyed, for example the elimination of predators such as wolves and bears in a forest, there are serious repercussions that will eventually effect the entire ecosystem from, from the overpopulation of deer, increased spread of disease, loss of habitat due to overgrazing, which results in increased starvation of wildlife and the eventual loss of biotic diversity. These are things that are not apparent at a glance, nonetheless they do represent some of the most serious problems facing the health of the Earth, and it is precisely these nondescript consequences that makes understanding these relationships so important.
In Environmental Ethics, Rolston puts forth a new ethical paradigm that responds to this void in our consciousness. By illustrating the vital importance and necessary interplay between of all aspects of nature, and the aesthetic, economic, religious, recreational, scientific, historical, cultural and dialectical values that nature represents for humans this book offers many important insights useful to addressing today's environmental crisis.
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natural value, environmental business, relict wildlands, humanistic sequence, situated environmental fitness, interhuman ethics, axiological model, contributory reference, evolutionary ecosystem, storied residence, projective nature, adaptive fit, systemic value, sentient animals Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Higher Animals, Environmental Policy, Humans Valuing the Natural Environment, Endangered Species, United States, Grand Canyon, John Muir, Wilderness Act, Golden Rule, Park Service, Aldo Leopold, Peter Singer, New Mexico, Forest Service, Red Rim, New England, West Virginia Browse Sample Pages:
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natural value, environmental business, relict wildlands, humanistic sequence, situated environmental fitness, interhuman ethics, axiological model, contributory reference, evolutionary ecosystem, storied residence, projective nature, adaptive fit, systemic value, sentient animals Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Higher Animals, Environmental Policy, Humans Valuing the Natural Environment, Endangered Species, United States, Grand Canyon, John Muir, Wilderness Act, Golden Rule, Park Service, Aldo Leopold, Peter Singer, New Mexico, Forest Service, Red Rim, New England, West Virginia Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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