Value, Beauty, and Nature: The Philosophy of Organism and the Metaphysical Foundations of Environmental Ethics (Suny Environmental Philosophy and Ethics)

Much of early environmental ethics was born out of the belief that the ecological crisis can only truly be solved by overcoming a pernicious worldview that limits all intrinsic value to human beings. Returning to this originating impulse, Value, Beauty, and Nature contends that, to make progress within environmental ethics , philosophers must explicitly engage in environmental metaphysics . Grounded in an organicist process worldview, Brian G. Henning shows that it is possible to make progress in key debates within environmental philosophy, including those concerning the nature of intrinsic value; anthropocentrism; hierarchy; the moral significance of beauty; the nature of individuality; teleology and the naturalistic fallacy; and worldview reconstruction. A Whiteheadian fallibilistic, naturalistic, event ontology allows for the recovery of systematic, speculative metaphysical thought without a revanchist movement toward a necessitarian philosophia perennis . Thus, in contrast to the claims of environmental pragmatists, Value, Beauty, and Nature demonstrates that environmental ethics would greatly benefit from an adequate metaphysical foundation and, of the candidate metaphysical systems, Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy of organism is the most adequate. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Unearthing the Process Roots of Environmental Ethics The Philosophy of Organism Whitehead’s Metaphysical System as a Foundation for Environmental Ethics Chapter 1. In Defense of Systematic, Speculative Philosophy The Twentieth-Century Nadir of Metaphysics Recovering the Adventure of Ideas Chapter 2. Value Categorizing a Whiteheadian Ethic Intrinsic Value Morality in the Making Moral Ideals Chapter 3. Whitehead, Callicott, and Rolston Environmental Ethics’ Recalcitrant Problem Rolston: Values in and Duties to the Natural World Organisms, Machines, Teleology Organism-in-Environment Creativity Value Chapter 4. Beauty The Process Reception and Rejection of Leopold Reality as Kalogenic Aesthetic Realism Peace Chapter 5. Hierarchy Deep Ecology, Ecofeminism, and Hierarchy Hierarchy and the Chain of Being Value Hierarchy Thinking and the Logic of Domination Hierarchy without Anthroparchy Eating Animals and the Robbery of Life Chapter 6. Individuals Substance, Event, and Individuality The Ontology of Social Insects Chapter 7. Teleology and the Naturalistic Fallacy Peirce and Whitehead on Teleology Moore, Whitehead, and the Naturalistic Fallacy Moore and the Naturalistic Fallacy Whitehead, Value, and Naturalistic Metaphysics Chapter 8. Environmental Pragmatism Environmental Pragmatism and the Policy Turn Has Environmental Ethics Been Ineffectual? The Convergence Hypothesis “Good” Environmental Policy Anti-Philosophical Environmental Pragmatism and Classical American Pragmatism Chapter 9. From the Anthropocene to the Ecozoic The Anthropocene Discourse The Ecozoic Era Notes Bibliography Index