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28Artefacts and Functions: A Note on the Value of NatureEnvironmental Values 2 (3): 223-232. 1993.This paper examines and compares the ontological and axiological character of artefacts – human creations – with nonhuman natural entities. The essential difference between artefacts and natural entities is that the former are always the result of human intention and design, while the latter are independent of human purpose. Artefacts have functions ; natural entities do not. The connection to human intentional purpose implies a different kind of value for artefacts. Artefacts are evaluated sole…Read more
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35Nature, Value, Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, IIIEnvironmental Ethics 30 (1): 89-92. 2008.
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59Moving beyond Anthropocentrism: Environmental Ethics, Development, and the AmazonEnvironmental Ethics 15 (1): 49-59. 1993.We argue for the rejection of an anthropocentric and instrumental system of normative ethics. Moral arguments for the preservation of the environment cannot be based on the promotion of human interests or goods. The failure of anthropocentric arguments is exemplified by the dilemma of Third World development policy, e.g., the controversy over the preservation of the Amazon rain forest. Considerationsof both utility and justice preclude a solution to the problems of Third World development from t…Read more
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13Utilitarianism and PreservationEnvironmental Ethics 1 (4): 357-364. 1979.In “The Concept of the Irreplaceable,” John N. Martin claims that utilitarian arguments can explain the environmentalist position concerning the preservation of natural objects as long as human attitudes toward preservation are considered along with the direct benefits of environmental preservation. But this type of utilitarian justification is biased in favor of the satisfaction of human preferences. No ethical theory which calculates goodness in terms of the amount of human satisfaction can pr…Read more
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16Holmes Rolston, III, Three Big Bangs: Matter-Energy, Life, Mind (review)Environmental Ethics 34 (3): 313-316. 2012.
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59The Call of the Wild: The Struggle against Domination and the Technological Fix of NatureEnvironmental Ethics 14 (3): 265-273. 1992.In this essay, I use encounters with the white-tailed deer of Fire Island to explore the “call of the wild”—the attraction to value that exists in a natural world outside of human control. Value exists in nature to the extent that it avoids modification by human technology. Technology “fixes” the natural world by improving it for human use or by restoring degraded ecosystems. Technology creates a “new world,” an artifactual reality that is far removed from the “wildness” of nature. The technolog…Read more
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14Dale Jamieson: Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle against Climate Change Failed—And What It Means for Our FutureEnvironmental Ethics 37 (2): 255-256. 2015.
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125A pragmatic reconsideration of anthropocentrismEnvironmental Ethics 21 (4): 377-390. 1999.For much of its brief history, the field of environmental ethics has been critical of anthropocentrism. I here undertake a pragmatic reconsideration of anthropocentrism. In the first part of this essay, I explain what a pragmatic reconsideration of anthropocentrism means. I differentiate two distinct pragmatic strategies, one substantive and one methodological, and I adopt methodological pragmatism as my guiding principle. In the second part of this essay, I examine a case study of environmental…Read more
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38Preserving the distinction between nature and artifactIn Gregory E. Kaebnick (ed.), The Ideal of Nature: Debates About Biotechnology and the Environment, Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 71. 2011.
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38Nature by design: People, natural process, and ecological restorationEnvironmental Ethics 29 (2): 213-216. 2007.
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363The Nazi Engineers: Reflections on Technological Ethics in HellScience and Engineering Ethics 17 (3): 571-582. 2011.Engineers, architects, and other technological professionals designed the genocidal death machines of the Third Reich. The death camp operations were highly efficient, so these technological professionals knew what they were doing: they were, so to speak, good engineers. As an educator at a technological university, I need to explain to my students—future engineers and architects—the motivations and ethical reasoning of the technological professionals of the Third Reich. I need to educate my stu…Read more
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83Further Adventures in the Case against RestorationEnvironmental Ethics 34 (1): 67-97. 2012.Ecological restoration has been a topic for philosophical criticism for three decades. In this essay, I present a discussion of the arguments against ecological restoration and the objections raised against my position. I have two purposes in mind: to defend my views against my critics, and to demonstrate that the debate over restoration reveals fundamental ideas about the meaning of nature, ideas that are necessary for the existence of any substantive environmentalism. I discuss the possibility…Read more
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17The philosophy of deep ecology originated in the 1970s with the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess and has since spread around the world. Its basic premises are a belief in the intrinsic value of nonhuman nature, a belief that ecological principles should dictate human actions and moral evaluations, an emphasis on noninterference into natural processes, and a critique of materialism and technological progress.This book approaches deep ecology as a philosophy, not as a political, social, or environ…Read more
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7Authenticity and Place The authenticity of place in culture and nature: thoughts on the Holocaust in the Spanish synagogue of VenicePhilosophy and Geography 5 (2). 2002.
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5Nature, Value, Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III (review)Environmental Ethics 30 (1): 89-92. 2008.
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22Methodology in Applied Environmental Ethics: Comments on Dombrowski and FinsenBetween the Species 4 (1): 6. 1988.
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49Understanding moral limits in the duality of artifacts and nature: A reply to criticsEthics and the Environment 7 (1): 138-146. 2002.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Ethics & the Environment 7.1 (2002) 138-146 [Access article in PDF] Understanding Moral Limits in the Duality of Artifacts and NatureA Reply to Critics Eric Katz Ned Hettinger and Wayne Ouderkirk present some cogent criticisms of my ideas in environmental ethics, especially those ideas closely associated with my attacks on the process of ecological restoration. Both trace the source of my alleged problems to a pernicious dualism of n…Read more
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3Defending the use of animals by business: Animal liberation and environmental ethicsBusiness, Ethics and the Environment: The Public Policy Debate. forthcoming.
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40A Pragmatic Reconsideration of AnthropocentrismEnvironmental Ethics 21 (4): 377-390. 1999.For much of its brief history, the field of environmental ethics has been critical of anthropocentrism. I here undertake a pragmatic reconsideration of anthropocentrism. In the first part of this essay, I explain what a pragmatic reconsideration of anthropocentrism means. I differentiate two distinct pragmatic strategies, one substantive and one methodological, and I adopt methodological pragmatism as my guiding principle. In the second part of this essay, I examine a case study of environmental…Read more
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2Nature by Design: People, Natural Process, and Ecological Restoration (review)Environmental Ethics 29 (2): 213-216. 2007.
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94Geoengineering, Restoration, and the Construction of NatureEnvironmental Ethics 37 (4): 485-498. 2015.An old book by children’s author Dr. Seuss can be an inspiration to examine the ethical and ontological meaning of geoengineering. My argument is based on my critique of the process of ecological restoration as the creation of an artifactual reality. When humanity intentionally interferes with the processes and entities of nature, we change the ontological reality of the natural world. The world becomes a garden, or a zoo, an environment that must be continually managed to meet the goals of huma…Read more
Newark, New Jersey, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |