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29What the Heck Cattle Have to Do with Environmentalism: Rewilding and the Continuous Project of the Human Management of NatureEthics, Policy and Environment 27 (2): 227-249. 2024.In the 1920s and 1930s, an attempt was made to resurrect the aurochs (Bos primigenius primigenius), the extinct wild ancestor of contemporary domestic cattle. The back-bred species that was produced are called ‘Heck cattle’. I argue that the attempt to create the Heck cattle as a form of resurrected aurochs, and their subsequent use in rewilding projects (as in the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands) is a prime example of the continuous human project of the domination of nature. The consider…Read more
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16Philosophy and Geography I: Space, Place, and Environmental Ethics (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1996.The inaugural collection in an exciting new exchange between philosophers and geographers, this volume provides interdisciplinary approaches to the environment as space, place, and idea. Never before have philosophers and geographers approached each other's subjects in such a strong spirit of mutual understanding. The result is a concrete exploration of the human-nature relationship that embraces strong normative approaches to environmental problems
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19Six TreesEnvironmental Ethics 45 (2): 175-197. 2023.Consider the existence of six identical trees of the same species across a variety of environments. The first tree is in a wild and isolated landscape. The second is in a wilderness park. The third is in a heavily forested “tree plantation” owned by International Paper. The fourth is in the Ramble in Central Park. The fifth is in a suburban yard. The sixth is inside the six-story atrium of a Manhattan skyscraper. This paper begins with the intuition that the identical trees have different values…Read more
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7Nature's Presence and the Technology of Death: Reflections On Healing and DominationBulletin of Science, Technology and Society 17 (1): 3-7. 1997.
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4Book Review: The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communion With Nature By William R. Jordan (review)Ethics and the Environment 12 (1): 97-104. 2007.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communion with NatureEric Katz (bio)Review of William R. Jordan III, The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communion with Nature. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003. Pp. 256, Index.In The Sunflower Forest, William Jordan presents the process of ecological restoration as a new environmental paradigm for a "new kind of environmentali…Read more
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Review of Jordan, William R., The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communion with Nature (review)Ethics and the Environment 1 (1): 97-104. 2007.
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6Is There a Place for Animals in the Moral Consideration of Nature?Ethics and Animals 4 (3). 2011.
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Review of Faking Nature: The Ethics of Environmental Restoration (review)Ethics and the Environment 3 201-205. 1998.
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82Considering De-Extinction: Zombie Arguments and the Walking (And Flying and Swimming) DeadEthics, Policy and Environment 25 (2): 81-103. 2022.De-extinction raises anew ontological and epistemological problems that have engaged environmental philosophers for decades. This essay re-examines these issues to provide a fuller understanding—and a critique—of de-extinction. One of my claims is that de-extinction as a philosophical problem merely recycles old issues and debates in the field (hence, “zombie” arguments). De-extinction is a project that arises out of the assertion of human domination of the natural world. Thus the acceptance of …Read more
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24Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control from Ancient Times to the Scientific RevolutionEnvironmental Ethics 40 (1): 93-94. 2018.
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64Replacement and Irreversibility: The Problem with Ecological Restoration as Moral RepairEthics and the Environment 23 (1): 17. 2018.Abstract:Should the process of ecological restoration be considered a type of moral reparation? In a recent issue of this journal, Ben Almassi (2017) has argued that ecological restoration should be understood as a moral repair, i.e., as "a model for rebuilding the moral conditions of relationships" (20). Ideas of restorative justice and moral repair are appropriate to address human injustice and wrongdoing. But these concepts are vacuous and lose their meaning when addressing the ethics of huma…Read more
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2Introduction: Environmental pragmatism and environmental ethics as contested terrainIn Andrew Light & Eric Katz (eds.), Environmental Pragmatism, Routledge. pp. 1--18. 1996.
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1Convergence and ecological restoration: a counterexampleIn Ben A. Minteer (ed.), Nature in Common?: Environmental Ethics and the Contested Foundations of Environmental Policy, Temple University Press. 2009.
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62Is There a Place for Animals in the Moral Consideration of NatureEnvironmental Ethics. An Anthology. forthcoming.
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10Understanding 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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83Envisioning a De-Anthropocentrised World: Critical Comments on Anthony Weston's 'The Incompleat Eco-Philosopher'Ethics, Policy and Environment 14 (1): 97-101. 2011.Weston and I will be forever linked in the field of environmental philosophy because of an exchange of essays that were published in the journal Environmental Ethics in 1985 and 1987 on the subject...
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25The Liberation of Humanity and NatureEnvironmental Values 11 (4): 397-405. 2002.What does the ' liberation ' of nature mean? In this essay, I use a pragmatic methodology to reject the idea that we need a metaphysical understanding of the nature of nature before we can speak of nature's liberation, and explain the sense of liberation as being the continuation of human non-interference in natural processes. Two real life policy cases are cited as examples: beach restoration on Fire Island and rock climbing in designated wilderness areas
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31Svein Anders Noer Lie, Philosophy of Nature: Rethinking NaturalnessEnvironmental Values 26 (1): 111-113. 2017.
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45The Challenger Tragedy: A Case Study in Organizational Communication and Professional EthicsBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal 12 (2): 91-108. 1993.
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32Naturalness: Is the “Natural” Preferable to the “Artificial”?Environmental Ethics 38 (2): 241-244. 2016.
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52Utilitarianism 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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196The 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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32Anthropocentric Indirect Arguments: Return of the Plastic-tree ZombiesEthics, Policy and Environment 17 (3): 264-266. 2014.Forget Aldo Leopold. Or Holmes Rolston, III, or Baird Callicott. Forget Arne Naess. I vote for Martin H. Krieger as the most influential environmental philosopher of all time. It has been over 40 y...
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15Organism, Community, and the "Substitution Problem"Environmental Ethics 7 (3): 241-256. 1985.Holistic accounts of the natural environment in environmental ethics fail to stress the distinction between the concepts of comnlunity and organism. Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic” adds to this confusion, for it can be interpreted as promoting either a community or an organic model of nature. The difference between the two concepts lies in the degree of autonomy possessed by constituent entities within the holistic system. Members within a community are autonomous, while the parts of an organism are…Read more
Newark, New Jersey, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |