Environmental Philosophy: The Art of Life in a World of Limits: Volume 13

Subject:

Table of contents

(16 chapters)
Purpose

This chapter explores the ideas of Alasdair MacIntyre and Vaclav Havel and what these two thinkers can contribute to green political theory.

Design/methodology/approach

This chapter includes examination of some of the key works of Havel and MacIntyre and analysis of these works from the point of view of green political theory.

Findings

The section ‘Havel and the Imperative to “Live in Truth”: Dissent and Green Politics’ explores Havel’s thought with a particular emphasis on his ethicised notion of political action and critique (‘living in truth’) and his focus on the centrality of dissent (both intellectually and in practice) as central to political critique and action. The section ‘MacIntyre as a Green Thinker: Vulnerability in Political and Moral Theory’ offers an overview of MacIntyre interpreted as a putative green thinker, with a particular emphasis on his ideas of dependence and vulnerability. The Conclusion attempts to draw some common themes together from both thinkers in terms of what they have to offer contemporary green political thought.

Research limitations/implications

What is presented here is introductory, ground clearing and therefore necessarily suggestive (as well as under-developed). That is, it is the start of a new area of exploration rather than an analysis based on any exhaustive and comprehensive knowledge of both thinkers.

Practical implications

This chapter offers some initial lines of exploration for scholars interested in the overlap between green thinking and the work of Havel and MacIntyre.

Originality/value

This is the first exploration of the connections between the works of Havel and MacIntyre and green political theory.

Purpose

To explore the essential elements of a ‘green art of living’: an enjoyable, elegant, graceful and simultaneously low impact lifestyle.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical analysis is based on a critical reading and literature study of the texts of various prominent ecological utopian thinkers in the history of political philosophy.

Findings

In an ecologically sustainable society first priority must be given to re-examination of the proper ‘ecological limits’ of the current lifestyles and ‘arts of living’ in the Western world. The exact form or shape that people give to their lives is less important than their overall commitment to live within the ecological boundaries set by our earth.

Originality/value

A green, ecologically responsible society cannot do without a certain degree of moderation, self-restraint and simpler and less consumption-oriented lifestyles. However, in this chapter it is shown that such a society will not lead to impoverishment and austerity. An ecological society founded on voluntary simplicity will not be frugal or poor, but creates ample opportunities for its citizens to lead attractive, pleasurable, fulfilling and high-quality lives.

Purpose

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, to give a concise account of the current global climate situation, its previous history according to the palaeoclimate record, and climate scientists’ predictions of the consequences of various scenarios of global climate change. Then to explain why so many people continue to be oblivious to the enormous risks of continuing with business as usual.

Methodology/approach

The approach is through a comprehensive study of the relevant evidence and the scientific and scholarly literature, interwoven with philosophical reflections on their significance.

Findings

The findings are as follows: the evidence for the anthropogenic nature of global warming is overwhelming, and the prognoses for continued burning of fossil fuels (sea level rise, extreme weather, etc.) are dire. The denial stems in large part from the undue influence of climate scepticism movements, lavishly funded by the fossil fuel industries, combined with a variety of psycho-social and economic factors.

Social implications

The implications are several. Given the complex nature of global warming, scientists need to do a better job of communicating their findings to the general public, and scholars and academics need to find ways to expose the machinations of the fossil fuel industries. And given the global impact of climate change, citizens of the developed nations need to see that a radical change in their behaviour is demanded not only by considerations of social justice but also even by their own self-interest.

Originality value

The value of this philosophical approach is that it affords a more comprehensive view of the situation around global warming than we get from the more specialised disciplines.

Purpose

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, to show how the financial power of the fossil fuel industries and the prevalence of religious ideology in Congress are the two major obstacles preventing the U.S. government from taking action to slow down global warming. Then to evaluate various approaches to ‘satisfying our energy needs’, by showing a crucial dynamic behind our insatiable drive to consume energy, and to propose some ways of circumventing the current obstacles.

Methodology/approach

The approach is through a comprehensive study of the relevant evidence and academic literature, interwoven with philosophical reflections on their significance.

Findings

The findings are as follows: a major root of the current problem is the dysfunctional political system in the United States, which is corrupted by vast infusions of money from the fossil fuel industries and the dogmatic religious beliefs of Republicans in key positions on Congressional committees.

Social implications

The implications are several. The proposed technological solutions to the ‘energy problem’ – nuclear power, carbon sequestration, fracking for natural gas and geo-engineering – only address the symptoms and ignore the dynamic that underlies them, exemplified in the story of Prometheus. If we continue to be driven by the Promethean spirit, we risk being subject to excruciating punishment as a result. The solution to our problems is a transition to clean and renewable sources of energy, accompanied by the kind of reduction in material desires that evidently makes for lives that are more fulfilled.

Originality/value

The value of the philosophical perspective on this topic is that it highlights questions of value that otherwise remain inexplicit.

Purpose

This chapter posits that we underestimate the way in which our immersion in the ‘social logic’ of capitalist consumption constrains our attempts to understand and respond to the ecological crises at both a personal and political level – and that both dimensions of our response are bound together.

Methodology/approach

Survey of literature on psychology, well-being and mindfulness.

Findings

How has the culture of capitalism – its psychic investment in colonizing our attention – compromised our ability to respond meaningfully to the challenges of sustainable development? In an acknowledgement of a certain closure around such themes within Western thought, I look to a point of exteriority in Peter Hershock’s work, drawing on China’s Chan Buddhist philosophy, for intimations of a worldview that challenges the West’s over-commitment to forms of ‘control’ in favour of a cultivation of mindful and careful awareness – and an offering of unconditional attention.

Social implications

Draws attention to a new phase of ‘enclosure’ in the cultural processes of capitalism.

Originality/value of paper

Original introduction of a critical approach to mindfulness in the debate on well-being.

Purpose

To determine the normative philosophical legitimacy of territorial claims to the Arctic high seas.

Methodology/approach

In this chapter I sketch a philosophical guideline for determining the scope of territorial rights based on established theories of territorial claims.

Findings

The scope of territorial rights should be limited to a geographical domain within which a group can establish a site of justice. Because currently a site of justice is not possible in the Arctic high seas, no state can extend a territorial claim to that area.

Implications

If adopted, this theory would prohibit the establishment of claims to the Arctic high seas made by countries such as Russia, Denmark (via Greenland) and Canada.

Purpose

This chapter argues that environmental ethicists commit a serious error when they require that people hold a moral realist metaethical belief in the intrinsic value of non-human living things and non-living natural things in order to be able to behave in an ethically acceptable manner toward the environment.

Methodology

Environmental ethics regard this position as the mandatory non-anthropocentrism one must first hold in order to be in a proper moral relationship to the environment. The main reason for seeing this requirement as an error is that it is politically unrealistic insofar most people most of the time behave in political contexts on the basis of instrumental and not intrinsic reasons. To claim that people can behave in a morally acceptable manner toward the environment if and only if they first believe in its intrinsic value is not only politically unrealistic, but also actually false.

Findings

The chapter looks at recent studies measuring the behavior of political and moral philosophers which shows that they do not behave in any markedly way better than non-moral philosophers. Ethicists, whom one can assume believe in some form or another of the mind-independent reality of moral properties, are not more morally well-behaved for holding such a belief.

Implications

Ethicists, especially environmental ethicists, are in no position to require of us to believe in the intrinsic value of the environment in order to behave in more beneficial ways toward it.

Purpose

This chapter considers the environmental damage related to Ireland’s recent ‘ghost estates’, placing this disastrous waste of resources in the long historical context of ancient ruins that also dot the land.

Methodology/approach

It considers ruins from an ecocritical perspective, as material artefacts attesting directly to people’s relationship with their environment.

Findings

From ancient megaliths and sacred sites to imposing castles, Ireland’s impressive ruins ignite romantic reflections in many. Yet, just like the modern ruins of ghost estates, they also tell of an often oppressive relationship between human cultures and the natural environment. Ironically perhaps, stone circles and tombs that seem to speak of people living in much closer relation to non-human nature than we moderns do are also associated with the environmental scourge of deforestation. Yet, they at least stand testament to an ethic of timelessness and robust building, as well as resistance to a seemingly irresistible process of capitalistic modernisation; the recent ruins are devoid of such ethical commitments. Given this, however, creative responses should also be noted to the logic of the ghost estates, including Cloughjordan’s Ecovillage and the NamaLab project.

Practical and social implications

Three sets of responses that all work more realistically with a recognition of the limits of sustainable development are considered in the conclusion: Transition Towns, an Ecovillage and architectural reutilisation of defunct buildings.

Purpose

To explore an idea that has been articulated and defended by a number of influential deep ecologists, namely, the idea that all living organisms or species should be valued equally, or regarded as possessing equal intrinsic value.

Design/methodology/approach

Examination of some of the key works of deep ecological theorists.

Findings

Despite its initial attractiveness as an expression of respect for all living things, there is something fundamentally paradoxical about the deep ecological position that has come to be known as biocentric egalitarianism.

Research limitations/implications

What is presented here is partial and does not cover all of the deep ecological thinking.

Practical implications

Offers some initial lines of exploration for scholars interested in the problems with this core deep ecological notion of biocentric egalitarianism/respect for all living things.

Originality/value

Offers a new account of non-egalitarian biocentrism

DOI
10.1108/S2051-5030(2013)13
Publication date
2013-12-27
Book series
Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice
Editor
Series copyright holder
Emerald Publishing Limited
ISBN
978-1-78350-136-6
eISBN
978-1-78350-137-3
Book series ISSN
2051-5030