Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism From Beauty to Duty

About this book

Environmental aesthetics is an emerging field of study that focuses on nature's aesthetic value as well as on its ethical and environmental implications. Drawing on the research of a number of disciplines, this exciting new area speaks to scholars working in a range of fields, including not only philosophy, but also environmental and cultural studies, public policy and planning, social and political theory, landscape design and management, and art and architecture.

Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism: From Beauty to Duty addresses the complex relationships between aesthetic appreciation and environmental issues and emphasizes the valuable contribution that environmental aesthetics can make to environmentalism. Allen Carlson, a pioneer in environmental aesthetics, and Sheila Lintott, who has published widely in aesthetics, combine important historical essays on the appreciation of nature with the best contemporary research in the field. They begin with classic pieces by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, John Muir, John Burroughs, and Aldo Leopold, as well as an essay by Eugene Hargrove that lays out the scientific, artistic, and aesthetic foundations of current environmental beliefs and attitudes.

The second section of the book addresses prevailing views on the conceptualization of nature and the various debates on how to properly and respectfully appreciate nature. The third section introduces positive aesthetics, the belief that everything in nature is essentially beautiful, even the devastation caused by earthquakes or floods. The essays in the final section explicitly bring together aesthetics, ethics, and environmentalism to explore the ways in which each might affect the others.

Contents

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Natural Aesthetic Value and Environmentalism by Allen Carlson and Sheila Linott Part 1 Historical Foundations (Allen Carlson and Sheila Lintott)1 - The Historical Foundations of American Environmental Attitudes (Eugene C. Hargrove)2 - The Nature of Beauty (Ralph Waldo Emerson)3 - Walking (Henry David Thoreau)4 - A Near View of the High Sierra (John Muir)5 - The Art of Seeing Things (John Burroughs)6 - A Taste for Country: Country, Natural History, and the Conservation Esthetic (Aldo Leopold)Part 2 Nature and Aesthetic Value (Allen Carlson and Sheila Lintott)7 - Leopold's Land Aesthetic (J. Baird Callicott)8 - Aesthetic Appreciation of the Natural Environment (Allen Carlson)9 - Icebreakers: Environmentalism and Natural Aesthetics (Stan Godlovitch)10 - Appreciating Nature on Its Own Terms (Yuriko Saito)11 - On Being Moved by Nature: Between Religion and Natural History (Noel Carroll_12 - Scientific Knowledge and the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature (Patricia Matthews)Part 3 - Nature and Positive Aesthetics 13 - Nature and Positive Aesthetics (Allen Carlson )14 - The Aesthetics of Unscenic Nature (Yuriko Saito)15 - Aesthetics and the Value of Nature (Janna Thompson)16 - Valuing Nature and the Autonomy of Natural Aesthetics (Stan Godlovitch)17 - The aesthetics of Nature (Malcolm Budd)18 - Nature Appreciation, Science and Positive Aesthetics (Glenn Parsons)Part 4: Nature Aesthetic Value, and Environmentalism 19 - From Beauty to Duty: Aesthetics of Nature and Environmental Ethics (Holmes Rolston III)20 - The Beauty that Requires Health (Marcia Muelder Eaton)21 - Cultural Sustainability: Aligning Aesthetics and Ecolog (Joan Iverson Nassauer)22 - Toward Ecofriendly Aesthetics (Sheila Lintott)23 - Aesthetic Character and Aesthetic Integrity in Environmental Conservation (397)24 - Objectivity in Environmental Aesthetics and Protection of the Environment (Ned Hettinger)Sources - 439Contributors - 441Index - 445

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Biography

Allen Carlson is professor of philosophy at the University of Alberta. He is interested in environmental philosophy and aesthetics, especially aesthetics of nature and landscape. He is coeditor of two collections of essays in these areas and author of Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art, and Architecture.Sheila Lintott is assistant professor of philosophy at Bucknell University. She is especially interested in issues at the intersection of aesthetics and ethics in environmental and feminist philosophy. Her publications have appeared in Environmental Ethics, Hypatia, the British Journal of Aesthetics, and the Journal of Aesthetic Education.