Ethics for a Finite World: An Essay Concerning a Sustainable Future [Paperback]

Herschel Elliott (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Herschel Elliott was born in February 1920 in Connecticut, in a farmhouse during a blizzard. He taught philosophy at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and then at the University of Florida. He retired in 1986, and now spends much of his time living in a remote farmhouse in Vermont with no utility service.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555915450
• ISBN-13: 978-1555915452
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,589,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Morals and Ethics!, September 27, 2005

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ethics for a Finite World: An Essay Concerning a Sustainable Future (Paperback)

In the foreword, Richard D. Lamm, former governor of Colorado, says, and I paraphrase here: The great earthshaking controversies in our history...have been initiated by people who were characterized as heretic for challenging the straight jacket of orthodoxy. New ideas come particularly hard in public policy.

On the inside over the author wrote, "We need a new basis for ethical behavior, lest we suffer the wrath of Mother Nature." He takes on traditional environmental ethics like the balance between human activity and the environment.

Written before Hurricane Katrina and Rita, Elliot writes that our first ethical obligation should be to maintain the endurance and resistance of the Earth's ecosystem. Then, after the environment is secured, we need to turn our attention to human population.

This book has heavy, mind-boggling content that makes us realize we have only one Earth and each of us should be doing our part in saving it and its people.

Today the now-retired author, formerly a professor, lives simply and treads lightly on the earth. He wants us to do the same.

The Speaker's Corner Books is a provocative new series designed to get us to talk about public policy topics. Different experts have written:

Think for Yourself: An Essay on Cutting Through the Babble, the Bias and the Hype by Steve Hindes

The Enduring Wilderness: Protecting Our Natural Heritage through the Wilderness Act by Doug Scott

Parting Shots from My Brittle Bow: Reflections on American Politics and Life by Eugene J. McCarthy.

The Brave New world of Health Care by Richard D. Lamm

God and Caesar in American: An Essay on Politics and Religion by Gary Hart

For information on these other books, www.fulcrum-books.com

Armchair Interviews says this book is about morals and ethics, both the culturally big picture and individually (yours and mine). The book would be a great public or church discussion group topic.