Environmental Ethics - the Big Questions

I doubt the editor knew what he was getting into when he agreed to put this textbook together while floating down the Colorado River with the general editor of this series. It is a monumental achievement and one for which his students and colleagues will be very grateful since it must rank as the bible of environmental ethics with its synoptic overview of the field. The contributors are not only the leading thinkers of the last 40 years but also Western philosophers, especially on questions of defining anthropocentrism, which includes Aquinas, Francis Bacon and John Stuart Mill. The introduction defines environmental ethics, and is followed by reflections from leading thinkers about why they study environmental ethics. The rest of the book unpacks the big questions in a series of sections on the scope of moral considerability, the grounding of environmental ethics, connections across the disciplines, and ethical dimensions of environmental public policy, including population, agriculture, environmental justice and economics. Finally, Holmes Rolston III and reflects on the future of environmental ethics. An essential reference book for anyone interested in this field. For a growing archive of environmental ethics case studies, see www.environmentalethics.info/