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2BiologyIn W. Newton-Smith (ed.), A companion to the philosophy of science, Blackwell. 2000.Philosophical reflection on biological phenomena and knowledge has a long history. Indeed, some topics of contemporary interest have a history dating back at least to Aristotle (e.g., teleology, the nature of laws, classification (taxonomy), and the nature and logic of explanation and causality). The modern period of philosophy of biology, however, was ushered in by Morton Beckner with the publication of his landmark book The Biological Way of Thought. In it, Beckner employs the analytic tools a…Read more
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The Secret Chain: Evolution and EthicsBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (2): 317-319. 1996.
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Philosophy of Technology and the EnvironmentIn Stephen M. Gardiner & Allen Thompson (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics, Oxford University Press. 2017.Four strands of research in the philosophy of technology have made important contributions to environmental philosophy. First, critical theory of technology emphasizes the environmentally exploitative tendencies of capitalist technological innovation. Second, phenomenologyhas examined how technologies shapeperception and orientation to the world with implications for our treatment of and regard for nature. Third, concurrent with the environmental movement itself, an empirical turn in philosophy …Read more
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Resilience as a systems concept, with an application to the American WestIn Kelly A. Parker & Heather E. Keith (eds.), Pragmatist and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience, Lexington Books. 2019.
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1Further Thoughts on Food FuturesIn Samantha Noll & Zachary Piso (eds.), Paul B. Thompson's Philosophy of Agriculture: Fields, Farmers, Forks, and Food, Springer Verlag. pp. 185-206. 2023.Thompson provides commentary and reaction to other chapters in the book. It is organized as sections identified by the names of chapter authors. Thompson responds to chapters advancing new ideas in agriculture by indicating how he understands the authors’ analysis with respect to his own work. Chapters that address more philosophical dimensions of Thompson’s writings are addressed by clarifying the pragmatist orientation of Thompson’s thought. Michel Foucault’s metaethics is used as a basis for …Read more
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8Agrarian Vision, Industrial Vision, and Rent-Seeking: A ViewpointJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 33 (3): 391-400. 2020.Many public debates about the societal significance and impact of agriculture are usefully framed by Paul Thompson’s distinction between the “agrarian” and the “industrial vision.” The key argument of the present paper is that the ongoing debate between these visions goes beyond academic philosophy and has direct effects on the political economy of agriculture by influencing the scope of rent-seeking activities that are undertaken primarily in the name of the agrarian vision. The existence of re…Read more
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Thompson, Paul B. Review of Risk Analysis and Scientific Method. By Kristin S. Shrader-FrechetteEnvironmental Ethics 8 277-285. 1986.
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The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental EthicsJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 9. 1996.
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Review of Hobbelink, Henk, Biotechnology and the Future of World Agriculture (review)Environmental Values 2 (1). 1993.
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Thompson, Paul B., Reviews of Albert Howard, The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic AgricultureJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 2008.
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2Commodification and Secondary Rationalization. forthcoming.Commodification and Secondary Rationalization.
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3Animal agriculture and the welfare of animalsJournal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 226 (8): 1325-1327. 2005.
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7The Evolutionary Biology of EvilThe Monist 85 (2): 239-259. 2002.This paper is intended to be exploratory, polemical, and, I hope, provocative. It attempts to provide an evolutionary and naturalistic account of a central ethical concept: evil. I attempt this with full knowledge of the widespread and longstanding aversion, by philosophers, to naturalism in ethics.
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4Issues in Evolutionary Ethics (edited book)State University of New York Press. 1995.This book explores historical and current discussions of the relevance of evolutionary theory to ethics. The historical section conveys the intellectual struggle that took place within the framework of Darwinism from its inception up to the work of G. C. Williams, W. D. Hamilton, R. D. Alexander, A. L. Trivers, E. O. Wilson, R. Dawkins, and others. The contemporary section discusses ethics within the framework of evolutionary theory as enriched by the works of biologists such as those mentioned …Read more
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3The Structure of Biological TheoriesState University of New York Press. 1989.The central thesis of this book is that the semantic conception is a logical methodologically and heuristically richer and more accurate account of scientific theorizing, and in particular of theorizing in evolutionary biology, than the ...
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1Land and WaterIn Dale Jamieson (ed.), A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 1991.This chapter contains sections titled: Threatened agro‐ecosystems The optimization approach Agricultural environmental ethics: a neglected topic The dogma of pristine nature The dogma of environmental impact Pristine nature and environmental impact: implications for land use The agrarian alternative Agrarian philosophy and environmental quality From agrarianism to sustainable land and water use.
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3GmosIn Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 1003-1008. 2021.
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2The Interaction of Theories and the semantic Conception of Evolutionary TheoryPhilosophica 37 (n/a). 1986.
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2Steven A. Moore. Technology and Place: Sustainable Agriculture and the Blueprint Farm (review)Agriculture and Human Values 19 (4): 369-371. 2002.
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3Just before the Origin: Alfred Russel Wallace's Theory of Evolution. John Langdon BrooksIsis 77 (2): 352-353. 1986.
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5Ethics in the Innovation Process: Some Unaddressed Issues for PragmatistsContemporary Pragmatism 20 (1-2): 53-76. 2023.There are now dozens of proposals for integrating ethics into the early planning and assessment of technological innovation. This paper tracks some of Larry Hickman’s contributions to these trends. While Hickman’s suggestions could be incorporated into virtually many of the new proposals for integrating ethics into technological research, development and dissemination, barriers remain. In this paper, I will explores some reasons why the field remains fragmented, emphasizing weaknesses in the pra…Read more
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6Environmentalism and PosthumanismEssays in the Philosophy of Humanism 21 (2): 63-73. 2013.The term ‘posthumanism’ has not been promoted by many environmental philosophers, and it is not clear how the figures I discuss would react to be being characterized as posthumanist. It is more typical for advocates of the perspectives I discuss to characterize them with labels such as ‘non-anthropocentric,’ ‘ecocentric’, or ‘deep ecology.’ Yet, as I will argue, the ideas that have emerged in these lines of thought reflect philosophical commitments that could aptly be characterized as posthumani…Read more
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Value Theory |
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