Environmental Philosophy: A Collection of Readings

Environmental issues invariably raise philosophical questions, whether spoken or unspoken. This book helps to identify those questions and to chart a course toward constructive answers. An international group of contributors critically examines traditional ideas, both Western and non-Western, as well as new outlooks and approaches. Part I, Environmental Policy and Human Welfare, deals with time-honored questions such as: What responsibility do individual humans have toward humanity as a whole, including future generations? What is the 'Good Life' and what part does the natural environment, including wilderness, play in it?Part II, Toward a New Environmental Ethic, deals with more recently articulated questions such as: Do nonhuman species, both plant and animal, have rights? What of the inanimate world - landforms, bodies of water, the atmosphere? Who is qualified to speak for the nonhuman world? Howcan human technology be reconciled with human duties toward the natural environment?Part III, Attitudes to the Natural Environment, deals with underlying questions of value such as: How has the natural environment been viewed in traditional Western religious and ethical value systems? In non-Western systems such as that of the American Indian? What is the relation between such value systems and human actions?The 15 contributors to this book have been pioneers in teaching and writing about the thorny questions of environmental philosophy. What they say will interest and stimulate everyone concerned with environmental issues. Their book will be of special value as a basic textbook for courses in environmental philosophy or environmental ethics, as a supplementary text for courses in contemporary moral problems, and as part of a multi-book course on environmental issues.Contributors:I - Robert Coodin, Gregory S. Kavka & Virginia L. Warren, Jan Narveson, C. A. Hooker, Janna L. ThompsonTI - Mary Midgley, Mary Anne Warren, Holmes Rolston ITT, Stephen R. L. ClarkIII - Robin Attfield, J. Baird Callicott, Richard Routley