Jonathan Robert Parker

Much philosophical attention has been devoted to “The Land Ethic,” especially by Anglo-American philosophers, but little has been paid to A Sand County Almanac as a whole. Read through the lens of continental philosophy, A Sand County Almanac promulgates an evolutionary-ecological world view and effects a personal self- and a species-specific Self-transformation in its audience. It’s author, Aldo Leopold, realizes these aims through descriptive reflection that has something in common with phenomenology-although Leopold was by no stretch of the imagination a phenomenologist. Consideration of human-animal intersubjectivity, thematized in A Sand County Almanac, brings to light the moral problem of hunting and killing animal subjects. Leopold does not confront that problem, but it is confronted and resolved by Jose Ortega y Gassett, Henry Beston, and Paul Shepard in terms of an appropriate human relationship with wild-animal Others. Comparison with the genuinely Other-based Leopold-Ortega-Beston-Shepard wild-animal ethic shows the purportedly Other-based humanand possibly animal ethic of Emmanuel Levinas actually to be Same-based after all.

While the precipitous decline of biodiversity threatens life-sustaining processes and vast segments of the human population, concern about its loss remains extremely shallow. Nearly all motivational campaigns falsely assume that upon appreciating the relevant information, people will be sufficiently motivated to do something. But rational argumentation is doomed to fail, for there exists a motivational gap between a comprehension of the crisis and action taken based upon such knowledge. The origin of the gap lies neither in the quantity and quality of information on the crisis, nor in the putative confl ict between self-interest and morality. Instead, it lies in “remoteness conditions” which dissociate decision-makers from ecological damage and enfeeble incentive to correct it. The centralremoteness conditions are spatial, temporal, and consequential. They can be eliminated by concretizing and particularizing earth others. While direct-experience, place-based educational programs satisfy the criteria, they are uncommon. There is also little opportunity for working adultsto engage in these sorts of activities. As such, the outlook for endangered species and humans in the developing world remains dire.

Upon introducing aesthetic judgment in his Critique of Judgment, Kant proceeds to focus almost exclusively on elucidating positive aesthetic judgment. In the face of the conspicuous absence of negative judgment, scholars debate whether it is possible at all in Kant’s aesthetics. In the field of environmental aesthetics, an analogous issue exists. Environmental philosophers adhering to a positive aesthetics of nature position claim that, for the most part, only positive aesthetic evaluations are appropriate for “virgin” nature. After examining whether negative judgments are possible in Kant, I apply the results to the positive aesthetics of nature position and argue that not only are negative judgments of nature possible, but that a Kantian analysis threatens the viability of the positive aesthetics position. Alternatively, acceptance of positive aesthetics requires an abandonment of Kantian aesthetic theory

Soundscapes are comprised of biological sounds, non-biological sounds, and sounds introduced through human activity. These sounds provide us with the opportunity to both better understand and enjoy the natural world. Di­verse soundscapes across the globe are being degraded and disappearing altogether in the face of global climate change and habitat alteration. Humility and quietude are required as a means to confront the devastating loss of soundscapes. Stoicism offers fruitful accounts of these virtues that can be useful to us in our modern lives as we attempt to appreciate and protect natural soundscapes.