Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:43:43.304Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: The Practical Importance of Philosophical Inquiry for Environmental Professionals: A Look at the Intrinsic/ Instrumental Value Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2012

A. Brian Casas  and
Richard A. Burgess II
A. Brian Casas
Affiliation:
Graduate Student, Department of Philosophy, ABD, University of Illinois, Chicago
Richard A. Burgess II*
Affiliation:
Deputy Director, Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism/National Institute for Engineering Ethics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
*
Richard A. Burgess II, Deputy Director, Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism/National Institute for Engineering Ethics, Texas Tech University, Box 41023, Lubbock, TX 79409; (phone) 806-742-3525; (fax) 806-742-0444; (e-mail) richard.burgess@ttu.edu
Get access

Abstract

A classic debate in environmental ethics addresses the issue of whether the environment has intrinsic value. Proponents of an anthropocentric account contend that the environment is valuable only insofar as it is useful to human beings, where usefulness can be construed in either narrow or broad terms. Conversely, nonanthropocentrists claim that, in addition to instrumental value, the environment is intrinsically valuable. This debate has important practical implications for the way people conduct themselves concerning the environment. Nevertheless, it has been dismissed by some in the philosophical community as well as beyond. We argue that this debate is important and ought to be taken up by environmental professionals. The aforementioned different views are already reflected in environmental practice, including in the Society of American Foresters Code of Ethics. We argue that useful lessons can be learned from both areas of overlap between anthropocentrists and nonanthropocentrists, as well as from areas of disagreement. We will make our case, in part, by looking at the evolution of ethical responsibility in the engineering profession. Our broader claim is that philosophical discussions can and should be a part of professional practice.

Environmental Practice 14:184–189 (2012)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 184 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Callicot, J.B. 1989. In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy. SUNY Series in Philosophy and Biology. State University of New York Press, Albany, 325 pp.Google Scholar
Johnson, D.G., and Wetmore, J.. 2008. STS and Ethics: Implications for Engineering Ethics. In New Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, Hackett, E., Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M. and Wajcman, J., eds. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 567–582.Google Scholar
Leopold, A. 1966. A Sand County Almanac: With Other Essays on Conservation from Round River, enlarged edition. Oxford University Press, New York, 269 pp.Google Scholar
Lewis, R.W.B. 1955. The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 214 pp.Google Scholar
Muir, J. 1998. Selections from Our National Parks. In The Great New Wilderness Debate, Callicot, J.B. and Nelson, M.P., eds. University of Georgia Press, Athens, 48–62.Google Scholar
Naess, A. 2003. The Deep Ecological Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects. In Environmental Ethics: An Anthology, Light, A. and Rolston, H. II, eds. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies, volume 19. Blackwell, Malden, MA, 262–273.Google Scholar
Norton, B.G. 1987. Why Preserve Natural Variety? Studies in Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 281 pp.Google Scholar
Norton, B.G. 2003. Environmental Ethics and Weak Anthropocentrism. In Environmental Ethics: An Anthology, Light, A. and Rolston, H. II, eds. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies, volume 19. Blackwell, Malden, MA, 163–174.Google Scholar
O'Neill, J. 2003. The Varieties of Intrinsic Value. In Environmental Ethics: An Anthology, Light, A. and Rolston, H. II, eds. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies, volume 19. Blackwell, Malden, MA, 131–142.Google Scholar
Pinchot, G. 1947. Breaking New Ground, commemorative edition. Island Press, Washington, DC, 542 pp.Google Scholar
Pinchot, G. 2008. Prosperity. In American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau, McKibben, B., ed. Library of America, New York, 173–180.Google Scholar
Society of American Foresters (SAF). 2000. Code of Ethics. SAF, Bethesda, MD. Available at http://www.safnet.org/about/codeofethics.cfm (accessed March 2, 2012).Google Scholar