Foundations of Environmental Ethics Page: 11
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APPLIED ETHICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN
research into the development of nonanthropocentric foundations. I wish
here merely to put our environmental house in order historically, con-
structing or reconstructing arguments based on the actual evolution of our
environmental attitudes, so that further research can proceed without
unnecessary confusion or delay. The clarification of these matters is, I
believe, of importance whether nonanthropocentric arguments ultimately
triumph or not. If they do, these weak anthropocentric foundations will
serve only as a temporary defense against anthropocentric positions that
are exclusively instrumental and will eventually become nothing more than
historical curiosities. Should the quest for foundations based primarily on
nonanthropocentric intrinsic value fail, however, and we be forced to align
our preservationist arguments with the actual history of ideas that created
our basic intuitions and attitudes, the foundations described in this book
may achieve a more lasting importance in the long-term debate over the
nature and character of environmental ethics.
The main body of this book is divided into three parts. In the first, I
examine the positions that inhibit the development of an environmental
ethic; in the second, I provide accounts of the history of ideas that has
produced environmental thought; and in the third, I develop a general
argument, in the context of Parts I and II, in favor of the preservation of
nature. In Chapter 1, I discuss the role of philosophy in debates about
environmental ethics and show why most philosophers usually claim that
environmental ethics is in conflict with Western philosophy and the tradi-
tions of Western civilization. In Chapter 2, I examine land use attitudes
that are closely connected with Western conceptions of private property
and that have historically inhibited the development of concern about the
environment. It is these attitudes, rather than the philosophical ones dis-
cussed in Chapter 1, that, in practice, exert the greater influence, although
they, through the social and political writings of Locke, in particular, may
be said to be philosophical attitudes as well. In Chapter 3, I present an
account of the aesthetic and scientific attitudes that provide the fundamen-
tal intuitions upon which environmental thought and environmentalism in
general are based. In Chapter 4, I examine wildlife protection attitudes as a
special case of the general position developed in Chapter 3. In Chapter 5, I
consider and reject an instrumental argument for protecting nature based
on the belief that we humans will never develop the technical ability to
manipulate nature without unforeseen side effects. I argue that the
environmental defense of nature should not, for prudential reasons, be
based on speculations about the limitations of ecological science but rather
should be based more positively on our environmental values. In Chapter
6, I present an argument, in terms of our traditional environmental values
and based on the history of ideas discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, that we
humans have a duty to preserve nature in general because the existence of
natural beauty, defined very broadly, represents a positive good in the11
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Hargrove, Eugene C., 1944-. Foundations of Environmental Ethics, book, 1989; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52172/m1/23/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Center For Environmental Philosophy.