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125Refocusing EcocentrismEnvironmental Ethics 21 (1): 3-21. 1999.Traditional ecocentric ethics relies on an ecology that emphasizes the stability and integrity of ecosystems. Numerous ecologists now focus on natural systems that are less clearly characterized by these properties. We use the elimination and restoration of wolves in Yellowstone to illustrate troubles for traditional ecocentric ethics caused by ecological models emphasizing instability in natural systems. We identify several other problems for a stability-integrity based ecocentrism as well. We …Read more
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99Animal Beauty, Ethics, and Environmental PreservationEnvironmental Ethics 32 (2): 115-134. 2010.Animal beauty provides a significant aesthetic reason for protecting nature. Worries about aesthetic discrimination and the ugliness of predation might make one think otherwise. Although it has been argued that aesthetic merit is a trivial and morally objectionable basis for action, beauty is an important value and a legitimate basis for differential treatment, especially in the case of animals. While the suffering and death of animals due to predation are important disvalues that must be recogn…Read more
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78Valuing Predation in Rolston’s Environmental Ethics: Bambi Lovers versus Tree HuggersEnvironmental Ethics 16 (1): 3-20. 1994.Without modification, Rolston’s environmental ethics is biased in favor of plants, since he gives them stronger protection than animals. Rolston can avoid this bias by extending his principle protecting plants (the principle of the nonloss of goods) to human interactions with animals. Were he to do so, however, he would risk undermining his acceptance of meat eating and certain types of hunting. I argue,nevertheless, that meat eating and hunting, properly conceived, are compatible with this exte…Read more
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59The problem of finding a positive role for humans in the natural worldEthics and the Environment 7 (1): 109-123. 2002.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Ethics & the Environment 7.1 (2002) 109-123 [Access article in PDF] The Problem of Finding a Positive Role for Humans in the Natural World Ned Hettinger As necessary as it obviously is, the effort of "wilderness preservation" has too often implied that it is enough to save a series of islands of pristine and uninhabited wilderness in an otherwise exploited, damaged, and polluted land. And, further, that the pristine wilderness is the…Read more
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56Evaluating Positive AestheticsJournal of Aesthetic Education 51 (3): 26-41. 2017.For in all natural things there is something marvelous.1 None of nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.2 Positive aesthetics is the idea that all of nature is beautiful.3 The more qualified version supported here claims that nature—to the extent it is not influenced by humans—is specially and predominantly beautiful. Some of the most prominent figures in environmental aesthetics and ethics have defended PA. Holmes Rolston III was an early proponent: The Matterhorn leaves us in aw…Read more
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48Naturalness, wild-animal suffering, and Palmer on laissez-faireLes Ateliers de l'Éthique / the Ethics Forum 13 (1): 65-84. 2018.NED HETTINGER | : This essay explores the tension between concern for the suffering of wild animals and concern about massive human influence on nature. It examines Clare Palmer’s animal ethics and its attempt to balance a commitment to the laissez-faire policy of nonintervention in nature with our obligations to animals. The paper contrasts her approach with an alternative defence of this laissez-faire intuition based on a significant and increasingly important environmental value: Respect for …Read more
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36The natural and the artefactual: The implications of deep science and deep technology for environmental philosophy (review)Environmental Ethics 23 (4): 437-440. 2001.
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35Allen Carlson’s Environmental Aesthetics and the Protection of the EnvironmentEnvironmental Ethics 27 (1): 57-76. 2005.Evaluation of the contribution that Allen Carlson’s environmental aesthetics can make to environmental protection shows that Carlson’s positive aesthetics, his focus on the functionality of human environments for their proper aesthetic appreciation, and his integration of ethical concern with aesthetic appreciation all provide fruitful, though not unproblematic, avenues for an aesthetic defense of theenvironment.
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34Exotic Species, Naturalisation, and Biological NativismEnvironmental Values 10 (2): 193-224. 2001.Contrary to frequent characterisations, exotic species should not be identified as damaging species, species introduced by humans, or species originating from some other geographical location. Exotics are best characterised ecologically as species that are foreign to an ecological assemblage in the sense that they have not significantly adapted with the biota constituting that assemblage or to the local abiotic conditions. Exotic species become natives when they have ecologically naturalised and…Read more
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33Nature as Subject: Human Obligation and Natural CommunityEnvironmental Ethics 20 (1): 109-112. 1998.
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26Environmental DisobedienceIn Dale Jamieson (ed.), A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 1991.This chapter contains sections titled: The possibility and need for justification Civil, militant, and revolutionary disobedience Worries about violence and letting the individual decide Justifications for militant environmental activism The critique of humans‐only democracy Implications for militant disobedience Conclusion.
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25Book Review:Upstream/Downstream: Issues in Environmental Ethics. Donald Scherer (review)Ethics 102 (3): 677-. 1992.
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22Age of Man Environmentalism and Respect for an Independent NatureEthics, Policy and Environment 24 (1): 75-87. 2021.The debate about a new geological epoch ‘The Anthropocene’ has helped spawn ‘Age of Man Environmentalism’ (AME). According to AME, humans’ planetary impact indicates that respect for independent nature can no longer serve as a guiding value for environmentalism. Traditional goals of nature preservation and restoration are grounded in the illusory ideal of pristine nature. Humans are now fully integrated into nature and must become responsible managers of an earth we have created, governing it by…Read more
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17Enhancing Natural Value?Human Ecology Review 3 (1): 8-11. 1996.There is widespread skepticism among those with deep commitments to the natural world about the idea that humans can improve upon nature. While it seems obvious that humans can alter nature to better serve human uses, it is far from clear that humans can improve nature in non-utilitarian ways. Can human beings enhance intrinsic natural value? Perhaps the strongest reason for skepticism about this possibility is the value that many see in the "wildness" of nature, understood as the extent to whic…Read more
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15The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Nature (review)Environmental Ethics 38 (2): 237-240. 2016.
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12Book Review: Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding (review)Environmental Values 23 (3): 361-363. 2014.
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11Animals, Nature, and EthicsJournal of Mammalogy 75 (1): 219-223. 1994.Recently, Howard argued for the defensibility of research on nonhuman animals. Unfortunately, his essay is unnecessarily combative, lacking in detail, unbalanced, and poorly argued. Howard unfairly and mistakenly stereotypes as biologically naive anyone who rejects his position that nature's poor treatment of wild animals justifies animal research. Those interested in the morality of animal research deserve better guidance than what Howard provides. Here, we analyze Howard's claims and their imp…Read more
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10Patenting Life: Biotechnology, Intellectual Property, and Environmental EthicsBoston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 22 (2): 267. 1995.
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10Review of Donald Scherer: Upstream/downstream: Issues in Environmental Ethics. (review)Ethics 102 (3): 677-678. 1992.
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7Defining and evaluating exotic species: issues for Yellowstone park policyWestern North American Naturalist 61 (3). 2001.
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4Book Review: Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction (review)Environmental Values 19 (2): 258-262. 2010.
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1Environmental EthicsIn Marc Bekoff & Carron A. Meaney (eds.), Encyclopedia of animal rights and animal welfare, Greenwood Press. pp. 159--161. 1998.
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1Defending Aesthetic ProtectionismIn David Schmidtz (ed.), Philosophy: Environmental Ethics, Macmillan. pp. 287-308. 2016.Aesthetic reasons should be significant factors in justifying decisions about both natural and humanized environments. Far from being trivial or mere tools to find serious considerations, aesthetic rationales are necessary for appropriate environmental protection. Aesthetic responses to environments should be construed broadly to include cognitive, expressive, and sense-of-place dimensions. Aesthetic justifications for environmental protection go beyond shallow and deep anthropocentric rationale…Read more
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Book review of Peter Wenz, Environmental Ethics Today (review)Conservation Biology 18 (2): 587-588. 2004.
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |