Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics, by Holmes Rolston III, represents one of the most thorough and provocative works in the field of environmental philosophy to date. In addressing the essential question of the intrinsic value of the natural world Rolston is laying the groundwork for a new understanding of humanity's place in the world. Beginning with the simple premise of responsibility, Rolston argues that it is the duty of all humans by virtue of our existence as reasoning beings to protect and conserve the biodiversity and environmental health of the plant. This vital responsibility is intended to inform, not only for our relationship to the world vis a vis own consumptive needs, but in a way that enriches the existential potential of, not only all other forms of life, but the nonsentient ecosystem as well, i.e., mountains, sky, rivers, oceans, earth and rock.The importance of this kind of radical subjectivity is that it represents the necessary acknowledgement of the interconnectivity of all being. You may be asking yourself, but what does this mean to me as an individual, and why should I care about deforestation taking place in a remote part of the world? The answer Rolston, puts forth is both complex and elegant, in which he argues that the individual values of nature cannot be isolated, due to the inherent connectivity, in a simple pragmatic approach to life. Because since the earth is one great system of interrelationships, with all of the individual constituents relying upon the others in order to function. Thus, if one part is disturbed or destroyed, for example the elimination of predators such as wolves and bears in a forest, there are serious repercussions that will eventually effect the entire ecosystem from, from the overpopulation of deer, increased spread of disease, loss of habitat due to overgrazing, which results in increased starvation of wildlife and the eventual loss of biotic diversity. These are things that are not apparent at a glance, nonetheless they do represent some of the most serious problems facing the health of the Earth, and it is precisely these nondescript consequences that makes understanding these relationships so important.In Environmental Ethics, Rolston puts forth a new ethical paradigm that responds to this void in our consciousness. By illustrating the vital importance and necessary interplay between of all aspects of nature, and the aesthetic, economic, religious, recreational, scientific, historical, cultural and dialectical values that nature represents for humans this book offers many important insights useful to addressing today's environmental crisis.