Respect for Nature
Respect for Nature

Author: Paul W. Taylor

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-04-11

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1400838533

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What rational justification is there for conceiving of all living things as possessing inherent worth? In Respect for Nature, Paul Taylor draws on biology, moral philosophy, and environmental science to defend a biocentric environmental ethic in which all life has value. Without making claims for the moral rights of plants and animals, he offers a reasoned alternative to the prevailing anthropocentric view--that the natural environment and its wildlife are valued only as objects for human use or enjoyment. Respect for Nature provides both a full account of the biological conditions for life--human or otherwise--and a comprehensive view of the complex relationship between human beings and the whole of nature. This classic book remains a valuable resource for philosophers, biologists, and environmentalists alike--along with all those who care about the future of life on Earth. A new foreword by Dale Jamieson looks at how the original 1986 edition of Respect for Nature has shaped the study of environmental ethics, and shows why the work remains relevant to debates today.

With Respect for Nature
With Respect for Nature

Author: J. Claude Evans

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0791483347

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Explores how humans can take the lives of animals and plants while maintaining a proper respect both for ecosystems and for those who live in them.

Respect for Nature
Respect for Nature

Author: Paul W. Taylor

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 9780691022505

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Respect for Nature defends a biocentric theory of environmental ethics. Without making claims for the moral rights of plants and animals, Paul Taylor offers a reasoned alternative to the prevailing anthropocentric view, according to which the natural environment and its wild biotic communities are valued only as objects for human use or enjoyment.

Recognizing the Autonomy of Nature
Recognizing the Autonomy of Nature

Author: Thomas Heyd

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2005-11-09

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 9780231509800

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How do the ways in which we think about and describe nature shape the use and protection of the environment? Do our seemingly well-intentioned efforts in environmental conservation reflect a respect for nature or our desire to control nature's wildness? The contributors to this collection address these and other questions as they explore the theoretical and practical implications of a crucial aspect of environmental philosophy and policy-the autonomy of nature. In focusing on the recognition and meaning of nature's autonomy and linking issues of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and policy, the essays provide a variety of new perspectives on human relationships to nature. The authors begin by exploring what is meant by "nature," in what sense it can be seen as autonomous, and what respect for the autonomy of nature might entail. They examine the conflicts that arise between the satisfaction of human needs (food, shelter, etc.) and the natural world. The contributors also consider whether the activities of human beings contribute to nature's autonomy. In their investigation of these issues, they not only draw on philosophy and ethics; they also discuss how the idea of nature's autonomy affects policy decisions regarding the protection of agricultural, rural, and beach areas. The essays in the book's final section turn to management and restoration practices. The essays in this section pay close attention to how efforts at environmental protection alter or reinforce the traditional relationship between humans and nature. More specifically, the contributors examine whether management practices, as they are applied in nature conservation, actually promote the autonomy of nature, or whether they turn the environment into a "client" for policymakers.

Environmental Ethics
Environmental Ethics

Author: John Benson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-26

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1317972562

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Presupposing no prior knowledge of philosophy, John Benson introduces the fundamentals of environmental ethics by asking whether a concern with human well-being is an adequate basis for environmental ethics. He encourages the reader to explore this question, considering techniques used to value the environment and critically examining 'light green' to 'deep green' environmentalism. Each chapter is linked to a reading from a key thinker such as J.S. Mill and E.O. Wilson. Key features include activities and exercises, enabling readers to monitor their progress throughout the book, chapter summaries and guides to further reading.

With Respect for Nature
With Respect for Nature

Author: J. Claude Evans

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2005-05-26

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9780791464441

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Explores how humans can take the lives of animals and plants while maintaining a proper respect both for ecosystems and for those who live in them.

Philosophy After Darwin
Philosophy After Darwin

Author: Michael Ruse

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 593

ISBN-13: 0691135533

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An anthology of essential writings that cover some of the most influential ideas about the philosophical implications of Darwinism, since the publication of "On the Origin of Species".

Character and Environment
Character and Environment

Author: Ronald L. Sandler

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2009-05-22

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0231141076

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Character and Environment, Ronald L. Sandler brings together contemporary work on virtue ethics with contemporary work on environmental ethics. He demonstrates the many ways that any ethic of character can and should be informed by environmental considerations. He also develops a pluralistic, virtue-oriented environmental ethic that accommodates the richness and complexity of our relationship with the natural environment and provides effective and nuanced guidance on environmental issues.

Thinking like a Mall
Thinking like a Mall

Author: Steven Vogel

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2016-09-02

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0262529718

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A provocative argument that environmental thinking would be better off if it dropped the concept of “nature” altogether and spoke instead of the built environment. Environmentalism, in theory and practice, is concerned with protecting nature. But if we have now reached “the end of nature,” as Bill McKibben and other environmental thinkers have declared, what is there left to protect? In Thinking like a Mall, Steven Vogel argues that environmental thinking would be better off if it dropped the concept of “nature” altogether and spoke instead of the “environment”—that is, the world that actually surrounds us, which is always a built world, the only one that we inhabit. We need to think not so much like a mountain (as Aldo Leopold urged) as like a mall. Shopping malls, too, are part of the environment and deserve as much serious consideration from environmental thinkers as do mountains. Vogel argues provocatively that environmental philosophy, in its ethics, should no longer draw a distinction between the natural and the artificial and, in its politics, should abandon the idea that something beyond human practices (such as “nature”) can serve as a standard determining what those practices ought to be. The appeal to nature distinct from the built environment, he contends, may be not merely unhelpful to environmental thinking but in itself harmful to that thinking. The question for environmental philosophy is not “how can we save nature?” but rather “what environment should we inhabit, and what practices should we engage in to help build it?”