Searching for Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Essays in the Philosophy of Conservation Biology (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 10/17/2002
EAN 9780521809900, ISBN10: 0521809908
Hardcover, 566 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book examines from a multidisciplinary viewpoint the question of what we mean - what we should mean - by setting sustainability as a goal for environmental management. The author, trained as a philosopher of science and language, explores ways to break down the disciplinary barriers to communication and deliberation about environment policy, and to integrate science and evaluations into a more comprehensive environmental policy. Choosing sustainability as the keystone concept of environmental policy, the author explores what we can learn about sustainable living from the philosophy of pragmatism, from ecology, from economics, from planning, from conservation biology and from related disciplines. The idea of adaptive, or experimental, management provides the context, while insights from various disciplines are integrated into a comprehensive philosophy of environmental management. The book will appeal to students and professionals in the fields of environmental policy and ethics, conservation biology, and philosophy of science.
General introduction
an interdisciplinary experiment. Part I. Pragmatism as an Environmental Philosophy
1. The constancy of Leopold's land ethic
2. Thoreau and Leopold on science and values
3. Integration or reduction
two approaches to environmental values
4. Convergence corroborated
a comment on Arne Naess on wolf policies
5. Pragmatism, adaptive management, and sustainability
Part II. Science, Policy, and Policy Science
6. What is a conservation biologist?
7. Biological resources and endangered species
history, values, and policy
8. Leopold as practical moralist and pragmatic policy analyst
9. Improving ecological communication
Part III. Economics and Environmental Sustainability
10. Sustainability, human welfare, and ecosystem health
11. Economists' preferences and the preferences of economists
12. Evaluating ecosystem states
two competing paradigms
13. The evolution of preferences
Why 'sovereign' preferences may not lead to sustainable policies and what to do about it
14. Sustainability
ecological and economic perspectives
Part IV. Scaling Sustainability
Ecology as if Humans Mattered
15. Context and hierarchy in Aldo Leopold's theory of environmental management
16. Scale and biodiversity
a hierarchical approach
17. Ecological integrity and social values
at what scale
18. Change, constancy, and creativity
the new ecology and some old problems
19. Democracy and sense of place values
Part V. Some Elements of a Philosophy of Sustainable Living
20. Caring for nature
a broader look at animal stewardship
21. Can there be a universal earth ethic? Reflections on the earth charter
22. Intergenerational equity and sustainability
Part VI. Valuing Sustainability
Toward a More Comprehensive Approach to Environmental Evaluation
23. Commodity, amenity, and morality
the limits of quantification in valuing biodiversity
24. The cultural approach to conservation biology
25. Evaluation and ecosystem management
new directions needed?
26. What do we owe the future? An argument for introducing wolves into Adirondack Park
27. Environmental values and adaptive management.
"[R]eaders with interests in environmental science and conservation biology will find insight and mature, thoughful discussion well founded in the social and life sciences as well as the humanities." Choice "...inspiring and thought-provoking as well as wide-ranging...This book would be excellent for an undergraduate or graduate student discussion of public policy and philosophy, and as background reading on the complexities of sustainability." Edward J. Valauskas, Manager, Chicago Botanic Garden "This is an excellent book ... [Norton] provide a useful service by consolidating his considerable past contributions to the field of environmental philosophy under one cover." The Quarterly Review of Biology "This is a grand, yet warmly human book, well worth having on the shelf as food for thought and as a reference on a range of topics that truly matter." Environmental Ethics