Overview

What role can philosophers play in helping to resolve the moral and political dilemmas faced by environmental activists and policymakers? Moving away from environmental philosophy's usual focus on abstractions such as nonanthropocentrism and the intrinsic value of nature, this book focuses on environmental practice as the starting point for theoretical reflection. Philosophical thinking, it argues, need not be divided into the academic and the practical. Philosophy can take a more publicly engaged approach. The authors combine a deep understanding of the environmental ethics literature with a sympathetic sociological and political examination of environmental activists and their reasoning. The book is divided into three parts: political theory and environmental practice; philosophical tools for environmental practice; and rethinking philosophy through environmental practice. Case studies are included from Canada, Denmark, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Topics range from the specific, such as fox hunting and leaded gasoline, to the more general, such as biodiversity in India, biomedical ethics and crop biotechnology.

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9780262122528

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Reviews

In revelatory scholarship, Minteer recovers the civic pragmatist tradition by distinguishing the voices of those like Liberty Hyde Bailey, Josiah Royce, Lewis Mumford, and Benton MacKaye who, along with better known figures such as Dewey and Leopold, brought about an American renaissance in environmental philosophy. This magnificent accomplishment in intellectual history establishes the foundations of American environmental thought in the crucial context of its wider social and political goals. --Mark Sagoff, Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland This study gathers classical and contemporary sources into a sweeping examination of the role of politics and political theory in shaping conceptions of nature--and vice versa. Meyer achieves a balanced analysis of the strongest aspects of long-opposed philosophical approaches to the idea of nature. --Mark Sagoff, Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland This balanced and brilliant collection bridges environmental philosophy and environmental practice to the betterment of both. --Mark Sagoff, Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland

Author Information

Andrew Light is Director of the Center for Global Ethics at George Mason University and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

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