Growing alarm over the harm done by humans to the natural world, and
even to the viability of our own industrial civilization, compels us
to ask the deeper moral question: What should be the human
relationship to nature? Matthew R. Foster starts by assessing three
contrasting patterns of moral reasoning: the Progress Ethic that
created the world we live in; the biblically-inspired Stewardship
Ethic; and the Connection Ethic based on scientific understanding of
the interdependence of all natural entities. Critical analysis reveals
that none of these ethics is able to sustain the values it advocates
due to two unsupportable presumptions—that the norms of human
morality are commensurate with the natural world, and that the value
of an entity is an intrinsic property. Foster argues that in order for
a future environmental ethic to be both logically coherent and
environmentally constructive, it must start from unconventional
notions. First, because nature will never be commensurate with human
moral reasoning, non-rational resources must be employed despite the
risks involved. Second, value resides in the relationship of one
entity to another, and does not belong intrinsically to either—in
short, value is foremost a verb, rather than a noun. Foster proposes a
new paradigm attentive to the realm of value relations among all
natural entities, one which offers mediating opportunities between
nature and morality. In this new ethic there are no “shoulds.”
Rather, moral responsibilities to the natural entities around us are
elective, placing us in an unfamiliar yet potentially liberating
network of relationships. This book will be of interest to
scholars—both instructors and students—of environmental ethics,
philosophy, religion, and intellectual history, and all who are
concerned about the environmental challenges of our time.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780739164976
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Vendor
Lexington Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter