Environmental Skill: Motivation, Knowledge, and the Possibility of a Non-Romantic Environmental Ethics (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory)

Today it is widely recognized that we face urgent and serious environmental problems and we know much about them, yet we do very little. What explains this lack of motivation and change? Why is it so hard to change our lives? This book addresses this question by means of a philosophical inquiry into the conditions of possibility for environmental change. It discusses how we can become more motivated to do environmental good and what kind of knowledge we need for this, and explores the relations between motivation, knowledge, and modernity. After reviewing a broad range of possible philosophical and psychological responses to environmental apathy and inertia, the author argues for moving away from a modern focus on either detached reason and control (Stoicism and Enlightenment reason) or the natural, the sentiments, and the authentic (Romanticism), both of which make possible disengaging and alienating modes of relating to our environment. Instead he develops the notion of environmental skill: a concept that bridges the gap between knowledge and action, re-interprets environmental virtue, and suggests an environmental ethics centered on experience, know-how and skillful engagement with our environment. The author then explores the implications of this ethics for our lives: it changes the way we think about , and deal with, health, food, animals, energy, climate change, politics, and technology. Cover 1 Title 8 Copyright 9 Dedication 10 Contents 12 Preface 14 Acknowledgments 16 1 Introduction 18 PART I Environmental Motivation and Knowledge: Ancient and Modern Lessons from Philosophy and Psychology 28 2 The Moral Psychology of Environmental “Sin” 30 3 Lessons from Contemporary Psychology 46 PART II The Janus Face of Modern Environmentalism: Enlightenment and Romanticism 58 4 Enlightenment Reason and Liberation Politics 60 5 Romantic Feeling for Nature 80 PART III Beyond Nature, Beyond Modernity, Beyond Thinking: A Non-Romantic, Non-Modern Approach 98 6 Beyond “Nature” and Modernity: Towards Non-Dualistic Thinking 100 7 Beyond Environmental Thinking (1): Skilled Engagement 113 8 Beyond Environmental Thinking (2): Exercising Virtue and Moral Sentiment 136 PART IV Implications for Environmental Ethics and Philosophy of Technology 152 9 Implications for Environmental Ethics (1): Beyond Walking in “Nature” 154 10 Implications for Environmental Ethics (2): Exploring the Possibility of Non-Modern and Non-Romantic Environmental Living 174 11 The Art of Environmental Practice as an Ethics of Skill: Revisiting the Problem of Technology and Its Relation to Alienation 198 12 Conclusion: The Possibility of a New Environmental Ethics 217 Bibliography 228 Index 236 Mark Coeckelbergh. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.