Nature in Common?

by Minteer, Ben A.

• ISBN13: 9781592137046
• ISBN10: 1592137040
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-28
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr

Summary

This important book brings together leading environmental thinkers to debate a central conflict within environmental philosophy: Should we appreciate nature mainly for its ability to advance our interests or should we respect it as having a good of its own, apart from any contribution to human well being? Specifically, the fourteen essays collected here discuss the "convergence hypothesis" put forth by Bryan Norton-a controversial thesis in environmental ethics about the policy implications of moral arguments for environmental protection. Historically influential essays are joined with newly commissioned essays to provide the first sustained attempt to reconcile two long-opposed positions. Norton himself offers the book's closing essay. This seminal volume contains contributions from some of the most respected scholars in the field, including Donald Brown, J. Baird Callicott, Andrew Light, Holmes Rolston III, Laura Westra, and many others. AlthoughNature in Common?will be especially useful for students and professionals studying environmental ethics and philosophy, it will engage any reader who is concerned about the philosophies underlying contemporary environmental policies.

Author Biography

Ben A. Minteer is Assistant Professor of Environmental Ethics and Policy in the School of Life Sciences and affiliated Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University.  He is author of The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction
Unity among Environmentalists? Debating the Values-Policy Link in Environmental Ethics	p. 3
The Convergence Hypothesis Debate in Environmental Ethics: The First Wave
Contextualism and Norton's Convergence Hypothesis	p. 21
Convergence and Contextualism: Some Clarifications and a Reply to Stevenson	p. 36
Why Norton's Approach Is Insufficient for Environmental Ethics	p. 49
Convergence in Environmental Values: An Empirical and Conceptual Defense	p. 65
The Relevance of Environmental Ethical Theories for Policy Making	p. 81
Expanding the Discussion: The Convergence Hypothesis Debate Today
Converging versus Reconstituting Environmental Ethics	p. 97
Environmental Ethics and Future Generations	p. 118
The Convergence Hypothesis Falsified: Implicit Intrinsic Value, Operational Rights, and De Factor Standing in the Endangered Species Act	p. 142
Convergence in an Agrarian Key	p. 167
Convergence and Ecological Restoration: A Counterexample	p. 185
Does a Public Environmental Philosophy Need a Convergence Hypothesis?	p. 196
The Importance of Creating an Applied Environmental Ethics: Lessons Learned from Climate Change	p. 215
Who Is Converging with Whom? An Open Letter to Professor Bryan Norton from a Policy Wonk	p. 228
Reply
Convergence and Divergence: The Convergence Hypothesis Twenty Years Later	p. 235
Contributors	p. 261
Notes	p. 265
Index	p. 299
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