•  40
    Virtue Ethics and the Material Values of Nature
    Philosophy in the Contemporary World 8 (2): 137-148. 2001.
    For Aristotle, man is part of nature, a “political animal” with the faculty of reason. In this sense, Aristotelian virtue ethics can be said to relate virtues to nature. On the one hand, virtues lean on the natural dispositions of man as a social animal. On the other hand, virtues are connected to praxis, that is, with man’s active realization of his inherent biological, social and cultural potential. Recently, the material value ethics of Max Scheler and Nicolai Hartmann developed the Aristotel…Read more
  •  3
    General Theory of Modal Fields and Modal Explanations in Human and Environmental Sciences
    Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 26 89-94. 2018.
    The idea of ‘modal fields’ is inspired by regional and pluralistic ontologies, which were sketched and developed by Hegel, Husserl and especially Nicolai Hartmann. It suggests that the world is structured by spheres which are not reducible to each other, and that modal fields denote the scope of real possibilities inside the spheres. It is, for example, possible to distinguish between physical, biological, ecological, economic and technological possibilities/modal fields. It is also possible to …Read more
  •  3
    The Problem of the Ethical Fundaments of Environmental Economy
    The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 28 41-46. 1998.
    The thesis of this paper is that the ethics of environmental economy must search for a virtue-ethical basis. The traditional utilitarian approach has been the dominant ethical paradigm in neoclassical economics, but it is very problematic regarding environmental issues. Alternative orientations for an environmentally responsible economy can be found from the history of economics, especially from the Aristotelian tradition, and recent discussions about values in nature. Through these, one can loo…Read more
  • Järjen todellisuus Juhlakirja Markku Mäelle (edited book)
    with Lauri Mehtonen
    Oulun Yliopistopaino. 2002.