Environmental Philosophy: Reason, Nature and Human Concern

An introduction to environmental philosophy, this book offers an account of the debates over how we should think about the natural world and our place in it. It challenges many of the dichotomies (man/nature, green/non-green) often set up, advocating conciliation rather than confrontation. Beginning with chapers that outline various concerns, this book goes on to explore many of the claims made about these concerns from the moderate view that we ought to consider notonly ourselves but also other animals, to the seemingly more extravagent claims that non-sentiant life, rocks, deserts, indeed all the processes of nature should be valued for their own sake. The imporatnce of an aesthetic response to the environment is explored, opening the way for a human-centered posistionwhich is both more generous and more flexible than those often advanced elsewhere.