Environmental Ethics: Anthologies and Journal Articles
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Browsing Environmental Ethics: Anthologies and Journal Articles by Author "Cambridge University Press, publisher"
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Item Open Access Care on Earth: generating informed concern(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Cambridge University Press, publisherGenerating beings that can care requires much complexity. DNA is best interpreted as a cybernetic process that selects for caring. In spontaneous wild nature, the processes that generate such concern have locally a narrow focus, self-survival of the organism. More inclusively, these processes generate ecosystemic networks in which life is elaborated in richness in biodiversity and biocomplexity, elaborated forms of caring. In humans, this focus is exceeded with more inclusive forms of caring. Such wider vision requires a complex brain that can, with a theory of mind, evaluate others with concern for their integrity. Humans, alone on the planet, can take a transcending overview of the whole--and care for life on Earth. The sciences trace the evolution of such escalating concern, but more complete explanations requires metaphysical and theological perspectives.Item Open Access Creation: God and endangered species(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1994) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Cambridge University Press, publisherSpecies have evolved from an evolutionary point of view, but by contemporary religious conviction, life is sacred and species exist with a divinely authorized claim to life, which ought to be respected by humans, the overseers of creation. Human-caused extinctions shut down the creative processes. Human dominion over the Earth is constrained by the inherent goodness in and value of creation. Extinction of species is ungodly. Such religious convictions can be an effective force in conservation biology.Item Open Access Environmental ethics on Antarctic ice(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2000) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Cambridge University Press, publisherAn environmental philosopher gets disoriented in Antarctica, an uninhabited continent, wilderness in deep freeze. Antarctica is peripheral to the main focus of environmental ethics, sustaining life on Earth. Yet Antarctica could set the pace for thinking about the common heritage of humankind. We must stay busy at work on the other six continents, but we ought to set this seventh continent aside. Don't nationalize it. Don't internationalize it. Naturalize it.Item Open Access The future of environmental ethics(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Cambridge University Press, publisherThe environment is on the world agenda, also on the ethical frontier, for the foreseeable future. Environmental ethics is, at times, about saving things past, still present. Environmental ethics is equally about future nature, without analogy in our past. Living at one of the ruptures of history, modern cultures threaten the stability, beauty, and integrity of Earth, and thereby of the cultures superposed on Earth. Environmental ethics must find a satisfactory fit for humans in the larger communities of life on Earth.Item Open Access Value in nature and the nature of value(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1994) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Cambridge University Press, publisherValue is often thought not to exist in wild nature; it is bestowed on nature by human preferences. This prevailing account is too anthropocentric. In nature, animals value their lives; they too can have their preferences satisfied. Plants have vital needs. Species are historical forms of life defended over generations. Ecosystems are "able to generate value," as occurs with the evolution and ecological support of organisms, animals, and humans. Earth, taken as earth, dirt, seems of little intrinsic value; but Earth, the home planet, is systemically valuable, the ground of all value.