The Environment: Philosophy, Science, and Ethics
William P. Kabasenche, Michael O'Rourke, and Matthew H. Slater
Abstract
Philosophical reflections on the environment began with early philosophers’ invocation of a cosmology that mixed natural and supernatural phenomena. Today, the central philosophical problem posed by the environment involves not what it can teach us about ourselves and our place in the cosmic order but rather how we can understand its workings in order to make better decisions about our own conduct regarding it. The resulting inquiry spans different areas of contemporary philosophy, many of which are represented by the fifteen chapters in this book. The chapters first consider conceptual proble ... More
Philosophical reflections on the environment began with early philosophers’ invocation of a cosmology that mixed natural and supernatural phenomena. Today, the central philosophical problem posed by the environment involves not what it can teach us about ourselves and our place in the cosmic order but rather how we can understand its workings in order to make better decisions about our own conduct regarding it. The resulting inquiry spans different areas of contemporary philosophy, many of which are represented by the fifteen chapters in this book. The chapters first consider conceptual problems generated by rapid advances in biology and ecology, examining such topics as ecological communities, adaptation, and scientific consensus. The chapters then turn to epistemic and axiological issues, first considering philosophical aspects of environmental decision making and then assessing particular environmental policies (largely relating to climate change), including reparations, remediation, and nuclear power, from a normative perspective.
Keywords:
cosmology,
supernatural phenomena,
environment,
cosmic order,
advances in biology,
ecology,
ecological communities,
adaptation,
scientific consensus,
environmental decision making
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262017404 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: August 2013 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262017404.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
William P. Kabasenche, editor
Michael O'Rourke, editor
Matthew H. Slater, editor
More
Less
