Environmental Philosophy Internationally


University of Wales, College of Cardiff, in Cardiff, Wales offers a Ph.D., M. A., and M.Phil in Applied Ethics, including environmental ethics and international relations. There is also a Centre for Applied Ethics. The Ph.D. is normally a three year program, with a research thesis. The M. Phil is normally a one- year research degree with a longer disseration. The M. A. is a one year degree with a shorter dissertation. Robin Attfield is a professor there and head of the philosophy section. Contact: Mr. Michael Durrant, Board of Studies for Philosophy, University of Wales College of Cardiff, P. O. Box 94, Cardiff CF1 3XE, United Kingdom. Telephone: Cardiff (0222) 874025.

Workineh Kelbessa completed a Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales: Indigenous and Modern Environmental Ethics: A Study of the Indigenous Oromo Environmental Ethic and Oromo Environmental Ethics in the Light of Modern Issues of Environment and Development. Fall 2001. Explores the linkage between indigenous and modern environmental ethics by examining the indigenous Oromo environmental ethic. The Oromo are a traditionally pastoralist people in South-West Ethiopia, comprising some 30% of the entire Ethiopian population. This undercuts some modern arguments about what counts as authority, who counts as an expert, and who counts as a scientist. The Oromo people have developed complex systems of agriculture and intensive soil, water, vegetation and wildlife management that have survived the test of time and the vagaries of the environment. These practices incorporate Oromo values and beliefs more than Western practices incorporate Western traditional values.
       Further, the Oromo world view can serve as the basis for a contemporary environmental ethic. Unlike anthropocentrists the Oromo have deep concerns for the future and health of both humans and nonhuman creatures. But indigenous and modern knowledge are not mutually exclusive. Each has limitations and neither can be a panacea for all ills in isolation. Both have something to teach as well as something to learn. In some instances one is superior to the other. The thesis advisor was Robin Attfield. Kelbessa is in philosopy, Addis Abbaba University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Helen Barnard completed a. Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, Cardiff, Nature, Human Nature and Value, December 2006. The main concern of environmental philosophy has been to find value for nature. This thesis links a theory of nature, a theory of human nature and a theory of value. A definition of nature is explored, requiring a brief history of the concept of nature. There has been a decline of teleological explanations and the development of two main contemporary explanations of human nature in relation to nature: Ultra-Darwinism (a reductionist explanation of human nature) and postmodernism. An analysis of these two positions shows that neither have an adequate metaphysics for finding value in nature, and this is revealed by an examination of two different types of environmental philosophy influenced respectively by the two opposing views.
        The problem of values is discussed with particular emphasis on moral values. An argument for objective values based on objective knowledge is put forward as well as a theory of human nature which leads to the conclusion that teleological explanations link a theory of nature, a theory of human nature and a theory of value more satisfactorily than the non-teleological explanations of Ultra-Darwinism and postmodernism. This conclusion is relevant to the problems of the environment. The advisor was Robin Attfield.

University of Central Lancashire, Preston, England, University of Central Lancashire, England, Centre for Professional Ethics, offers an M. A. in Values and Environment on campus and by distance learning. Eleven modules of instruction are offered, which include areas such as "Environmental Ethics," "Philosophy of Conservation," "Aesthetics and Environment," "Animals, Plants and Nature in Western Thought" and "Deliberation and Public Consultation" Six are required to complete the degree, together with a dissertation. Warwick Fox is a reader there along with Vernon Pratt and Peter Lucas, the course leader is Isis Brook. The environmental crisis requires us to think deeply about its causes and possible solutions. Although technologically driven approaches to these problems have been and will continue to be important, many commentators - from ecologists and environmental NGOs to political and religious leaders - consider that our environmental problems can only properly be understood and addressed at the level of the fundamental values that people hold. The MA Values and Environment (MAVE) provides an opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of how the values that have shaped our view of the world have emerged, what alternative approaches are being developed (or revived), and how these alternatives might be put to work to shape our global future. Further details available at:
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/health/ethics/courses/ma_values.htm
Contact Dr Isis Brook ihbrook@uclan.ac.uk

University of Lancaster, UK. Michael P. Nelson completed a Ph.D. thesis, 1998, The Land Ethic: A Theory of Environmental Ethics Defended. Focuses on Leopold's land ethic, covering issues in normative and theoretical ethics, also the history of philosophy and the philosophy of biology. The advisors were Alan Holland and Kate Rawles. Nelson is now assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho..

Oxford University. The Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society is located at Mansfield College, Oxford. The focus is on ethics and values as foundational for the analysis of the social dimension of environmental issues. One faculty member is Andrew Linzey, who occupies a fellowship sponsored by World Wildlife Fund in animal welfare. Another is Laura Rival, a French anthropologist, who does research on indigenous peoples in South America, with particular reference to petroleum development. Another is Bhaskar Vira, who is an economist, dealing with waste management in the lesser developed countries. Antonia Layard, a lawyer, analyses environmental liability within the European Community. Another Oxford philosopher interested in environmental issues is Roger Crisp, St. Anne's College. A recent Oxford Ph.D. is Clare Palmer, who wrote a dissertation on process philosophy and theology and environmental philosophy; she now has a teaching position at the University of Greenwich. Address: Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society, Mansfield College, Oxford OX1 3TF, UK.

Oxford University, Oxford, UK. Paul Waldau completed a Ph.D. thesis, 1998, Speciesism in Christianity and Buddhism. A comparative study of early Buddhist and early Christian language and views regarding other animals. Examination of the vocabulary and phrasing of philosophical and religious writings in the original languages (Pali in the case of Buddhism; Hebrew, Greek, and Latin in the case of Christianity) suggests that views of other animals were perpetuated by repeated and now traditional use of a very limited range of words and concepts. For Christians, Greek ideas were also important. For Buddhists, cultural presuppositions of the Indian subcontinent were important. Advisors included J.K.S. Ward. Waldeau also has a J.D. degree from UCLA. He is currently teaching part-time at Western Connecticut State University and at other Boston area universities. He has also been involved in ten conferences on religion and ecology that the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions hosted over the last ten years.

Manchester University. Piers H. G. Stephens, completed a Ph. D. thsis, Value, Nature and the Subject-Object Divide, 1997. Modernity is characterised by appropriating and making artefacts of nature, drawn from the philosophy of Descartes, Bacon and Locke, making nature continuously more of a reductive instrument for humans. This movement is challenged by synthesising the work of Anthony Weston and Robert E. Goodin within the epistemological framework of William James' pragmatic naturalism. Nature is ontologically contrasted to artifice, then defended as a source of spontaneity at the experiential level and of coherence at the theoretical/political level, making the claim for nature as a necessary primary good in the latter domain. The thesis supervisor was Keekok Lee. The external examiner was Andrew Dobson, University of Keele.

University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Cheryl Foster completed in 1992 a Ph.D. dissertation, Aesthetics and the Natural Environment. The supervisor was Ronald Hepburn. Foster is now assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Rhode Island, Department of Philosophy, 204 Adams Hall, Kingston, RI 02881-0813. Phone 401/792-2418. Fax 401-792-2945.

University of Edinburgh. There is a MSc in Human Ecology, also a diploma, a one-year course. Relationships between people and environment, including ecological economics, sustainability, gender politics, Agenda 21, environmental planning, agriculture, foresty, spiritual perspectives, creativity, community. Centre for Human Ecology, University of Edinburgh, 12 Roseneath Place, Edinburgh EH9 1JB, UK. Phone 44 (0)131 624 1974. Fax 44 (0)131 228 9630.
E-mail: registrar@che.ac.uk. Web: www.che.ac.uk

University of Southampton (United Kingdom). Graham Martin Smith completed a Ph.D. in political science, Pluralism, Deliberative Democracy and Environmental Values. 1997. How contemporary democratic decision making processes might more adequately attend to environmental values, connecting environmental politics and ethics. Humans value the nonhuman world in diverse ways. Value pluralism challenges moral philosophy and environmental ethics where the aim is to develop a monistic ethical theory. Decision making techniques such as cost-benefit analysis are insensitive to such value pluralism and misrepresent the values we associate with the nonhuman world. Liberal theory and liberal representative institutions fail to attend to environmental value pluralism. Two potential models of deliberative institutions are investigated--citizen panels and mediation-- which might increase the ecological quality of political decisions.

University of Essex, UK. David Samways completed a Ph.D. thesis: Ecological Wisdom and the Noble Savage: Assessing the Foundations of Eco- fundamentalism, 1996, in philosophy. Eco-fundamentalism attempts to establish incontestable foundations to environmental ethics, for example mobilizing a conception of human nature as the ultimate ground to ethical discourse. Such thinkers oppose the "ecological wisdom" of primitive peoples and the environmental degradation of civilization, with its anthropocentric orientation. But the simple equation of a certain orientation toward nature and consequent action is naive. Anthropocentrism has not been uniformly despotic, and it represents an unlikely candidate for the root cause of environmental degradation. Further, the ecological harmony of primitive peoples is a myth that owes more to Rousseauian speculation about the Noble Savage than any thoroughgoing anthropology or palaeo-anthropology. The ecological degradation caused by "developed" societies compared to primitive societies is quantitative rather than qualitative. Environmental ethics ultimately are no more than the beliefs and preferences of environmentalists. A pragmatist morality with a "medium strength anthropocentrism" can provide radical environmental ethics.

University of Leeds, UK. Chris Drinkwater completed a Ph.D. thesis, 1995, Ecology and Postmodernity, in contemporary Cultural Studies. The thesis relates the discourses of ecology and postmodern cultural analysis. There are both commonalities and irresolvable tensions. (1) The key problem is to elaborate ecological connectedness, a sense of ground, in terms that postmodern sensibility can understand and perhaps even embrace. (2) There are particular problems posed by dualistic structures of thinking and feeling. A key problem is to think beyond dualism of Same and Other, but without reducing the Other to the Same. (3) There is resistance to Self and Other dualism in the form of ecological identification. Deep ecological strategies of subjectivity are more complex and ambivalent than may first appear. (4) Human / nature dualism can be countered with symbolic and allegorical attitudes, with an excess of meaning that does not belong to language alone. (5,6) A politics of nature, using two broad strategies, coming from postmodern cultural analysis and from ecology. First, inclusion of "the natural" within "the social"; secondly, preservation of an Other that radically resists incorporation. Each of these approaches is necessary and desirable.

Free University of Brussels. The Human Ecology M.Sc. at the Free University of Brussels, VUB, homepage is http://vub.vub.ac.be/~gronsse/gen/intro.html

University of Oslo. The University of Oslo has now developed a program (there called a "course") entitled "Master of Philosophy in Environmental Values. The course is taught in English, is designed to attract international students, and is specifically geared to those who have a first degree in the Arts, Humanities or the Social Sciences preferably with a philosophy component. The web page giving details of the course is: http://faust.uio.no/kunngj/studyplan.html

The course duration is two years of full-time study, and is assessed by a combination of course work and a dissertation to be written during the second year of study. The new M.Phil. is offered by the Centre for Development and Environment (SUM) in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, University of Oslo. The homepage for SUM is
http://faust.uio.no/index.html
Students with a science background will be considered for the M.Phil. but their admission is at the discretion of the course organizers. Other European universities offer programs in Human Ecology, admission to which normally requires a degree in medicine or one of the life sciences.

University of New England, Armidale, Australia. The University of New England, Department of Philosophy, features a Master of Arts, a Master of Letters, and Ph.D. programs in environmental philosophy. The M. A. takes from 1-2 years and involves a dissertation, written papers, or both. The Master of Letters involves substantial coursework and a short dissertation. The Ph.D. is a three-year degree, with dissertation. Benefits include cheaper accomodations, a desirable natural and social environment, opportunities for employment in the department and residential colleges, and opportunities for close relations with supervisors. Contact Head of Department, Department of Philosophy, University of New England, Armidale, N.S. W. 2351, Australia. Phone 067 73 2896.

University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia offers both the M.A. and Ph.D degrees, with the possibility of a degree in environmental philosophy. Andrew Brennan, Head of the Department, has a principal interest in this field. Contact Andrew Brennan, Head, Department of Philosophy, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia. Fax: (09) 380 1057. Phone (09) 380 2107.

Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. Stephan Millett completed a Ph.D. thesis, Autopoiesis and Immanent Teleology: Toward an Aristotelian Environmental Ethic, 1997.   The contemporary concept of autopoiesis is enriched by coupling it with an Aristotelian concept of immanent teology, and such a metaphysical concept of nature can serve as a basis of environmental ethics.   Millett is now Director, Centre for Applied Ethics and Philosophy, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA.

University of Newcastle, Callaghan, N.S.W. (Newcastle area). Bruce A. Anthony completed a Ph.D. thesis in the Department of Philosophy, Towards the Recognition of a Necessary Environmental Value, May 1997. Anthony surveys the contemporary theories in environmental ethics, especially that of Holmes Rolston, and argues for a theory of value to be distinguished from a theory of the good. There are two necessary environmental values: (1) It is valuable to be a valuer, which is the positive value of the capacity to value. (2) The ground of such valuing is itself valuable, which is the positive value of the ground of the capacity to value. This latter is best applied to the ecosystemic matrix of value, and from this one can conclude that one ought not to degrade the ground of the capacity to value.

Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Greg R. Pritchard completed a Ph.D. thesis, Econstruction: The Nature/Culture Opposition in Texts about Whales and Whaling, 2004, Faculty of Arts.  This thesis investigates the perceived opposition between "culture" and "nature", presented as a dominant, biased and antagonistic relationship, engrained in the language of Western culture.  By focusing on whale texts (including older narratives, whaling books, novels and other whale-related texts), it explores the portrayal of whales and the natural world.  And, lastly, it suggests that Schopenhaurean thought, which has affinities in Moby-Dick, offers a cogent approach to ecocritically reading literature.

University of Queensland, Australia. Paul Francis York completed a Ph.D. thesis:Respect for the World: Universal Ethics and the Morality of Terraforming. 2005.  An examination of the morality of large-scale efforts to transform inanimate parts of nature, for example, proposals to terraform Mars.  Such an ethics expands the class of entities regarded as morally considerable to include inanimate entities.  Builds on the theory of Paul W. Taylor, in his Respect for Nature. Proposes two extensions: an expansion of the scope of moral considerability to include all concrete material objects and the introduction of variable moral significance (all entities have inherent worth but some have more than others).   Develops a universal ethics, an ethical framework whose key elements are a fundamental ethical attitude of respect for the world and a principle of minimal harm.  Universal ethics regards all concrete material entities, whether living or not, and whether natural or artefactual, as inherently valuable, and therefore as entitled to the respect of moral agents.  Concludes that terraforming Mars or any other celestial body at this point in our history would be morally wrong.  Also suggests that universal ethics provides an ethical foundation for efforts to protect Antarctica.

Polytechnic of Central London has established an interdisciplinary Centre for Environmental Policy Study. Contact: Polytechnic of Central London, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS.

University of Stellenbosch, in Stellenbosh, South Africa, through its Department of Philosophy, Centre for Applied Ethics, has established a Unit for Environmental Ethics. This Unit is a multi- disciplinary research and advisory boady that concerns itself with the problems that arise from the application of ethical norms to environmental issues. The Unit provides a nonpartisan forum for the exchange of ideas on environmental ethics in contemporary society, focussing on South Africa. Stellenbosch is a major South African University, located about an hour outside of Cape Town. Both M.A. and Ph.D degree work is possible. Contact Dr. Johan P. Hattingh, Chair, Unit for Environmental Ethics, Department of Philosophy, University of Stellenbosch, 7600 Stellenbosch, SOUTH AFRICA.

University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. F.W.J. (Ian) Voges finished a D.Phil. dissertation, 1999, Sustainable Development and the Socially Embedded Firm. An Inquiry into the Nature, Causes and Transformation of Structural Unsustainability in Contemporary Liberal Capitalism, 1999. Unsustainability is not an incidental consequence, but rather a structural feature of contemporary liberal capitalism. Sustainable development can be adequately conceptualised as intra- and intergenerational justice within the framework of Rawlsian constitutional liberalism. However, the Anglo-American model of capitalism that drives economic globalization does not represent the optimal institutional configuration for implementing intra- and intergenerational justice in the economy and corporations. The theory of associative democracy and contemporary political economics indicate that liberal capitalism can accommodate intra- and intergenerational justice if institutionally supplemented with empowered associations that play a visible role in economic and corporate governance. Promotor: Johan P. Hattingh, Co-promotor: Wouter Achterberg, University of Amsterdam. Voges is now in the office of Health and the Environment, Shell Oil Company, The Hague, Netherlands.

University of Stellenbosh, South Africa. Friedl Marincowitz finished an M. A. thesis, Towards an Ecological Feminist Self beyond Dualism and Essentialism, 1998. Promotor: Johan P. Hattingh.

University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. H. De Beer, finished a M. A. thesis, Omgewingsetiek en omgewingsbewaring: 'n wysgerig- etiese perspektief op bewaringswetgewing, -beleid en strategiee in Suid-Afrika. (Environmental Ethics and Environmental Conservation: A Philosophical-Ethical Perspective on Conservation Law, Policy and Strategies in South Africa). Promotor: Johan P. Hattingh.

University of Stellenbosch South Africa. I. MacFarlane finished a M. Phil. thesis, An Evaluation and Prioritisation of Dispute Resolution Procedures in the Context of Sustainable Development, 1998. Promotor: Johan P. Hattingh.

University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. G. Schafer finished a M. Phil. thesis, Bioregionalism and Contextual Discourse: Towards a Postmodern Environmentalism in South Africa, 1998. Promotor: Johan P. Hattingh.

University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria, Alan Hilary Marshall completed a M.A., The Concept of Environmental Ethics, 1993, arguing a homocentric ethics. This is the world view that the peoples and nations of the world currently adopt; morality is largely worked out in that context, and it is the view most likely to be successful in environmental conservation. Contact Pieter Coetzee, Department of Philosophy, UNISA, Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA.

University of Frankfurt, Germany. Angelika Krebs completed in 1993 a Ph.D. dissertation, Ethics of Nature: Basic Concepts, Basic Arguments of the Present Debate on Animal Ethics and Environmental Ethics. The supervisors were Bernard Williams, Friedrich Kambartel, and Jürgen Habermas. Krebs is now Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Frankfurt, Germany. Her address: Kanalstrasse 10, 78247 Hilzingen-Duchtlingen, Germany.

University of Oslo, Norway has a large philosophy department (also called an institute), about thirty-five persons. In the Norwegian curriculm all students at all universities (about 20,000 at Oslo) must sit an examination in what is called the examen philosophicum, a combined course involving the history of philosophy, some philosophy of science, and some logic and semantics. There are about twenty philosophers mainly assigned to this curriculum, and about fifteen who are assigned other philosophy courses and graduate teaching, which, with some, includes environmental ethics. There is both an M.A. and a Ph.D. program. For Norwegians, the university course is typically six years and ends with master's degree. Theses are often written in English, though lectures are typically in Norwegian.

Two persons with an interest in environmental ethics are Jon Wetlesen, in the philosophy graduate faculty, and Per Ariansen in the examen philosophicum faculty. Ariansen is the author of Miljofilosofi: En Innforing (Environmental Philosophy: An Introduction) (Oslo: Universitetforlaget, 1992), the first general text in environmental ethics in Norwegian. Address: Department of Philosophy, University of Oslo, Boks 1020, 0315 Oslo 3.

There is a Senter for Utvikling og Miljo (Center for Development and Environment) attached to the University of Oslo. About twenty persons are attached to the center in various research programs and the Center sponsors a number of seminars. Arne Naess, retired from the department of philosophy for a number of years, maintains an office here. Address for the Center: Postboks 1106, Blindern, 0317 Oslo. Phone 22 85 44 21. Fax 22 85 48 20.

Peder Anker completed a M.A. dissertation, The Political Limits of Deep Ecology (in Norwegian), in the Department of Philosophy. The argument is that deep ecology provides insufficient guidance for the solution of political problems requiring compromises in setting standards that must do justice to both sides. Other philosophers, such as Habermas and Rawls, although operating from an anthropocentric position, have important insights about justice that deep ecology lacks and needs. Address: Peder Anker, Erling Skjalgssonsgt 1b, 0267 Oslo.

University of Göteborg, Sweden. Bolof Stridbeck completed a doctoral dissertation in practical philosophy at the Humanities faculty at the University of Göteborg, June 1993. Published as Ekosofi och Etik (Göteborg, Sweden: Bokskogen, 1994). ISBN 91 7776 070 0. With an English summary, pp. 289-299. Deals with selected Norwegian and other ecophilosophers: Sigmund Kvaloy (Sätereng). Hjalmar Hegge. Arne Naess, Henryk Skolimowski. Generally he finds that these thinkers complement one another. Finally, the political strategy of Thomas Mathiesen, for promoting "ecological balance and creative manifoldness."

University of Göteborg, Sweden.   Petra Andersson completed a Ph.D. thesis: Humanity and Nature: Towards a Consistent Holistic Environmental Ethics. Published as Göteborg, Sweden: Acta Philosophica Gothoburgensia, no 20, 2007. ISSN: 0283-2380 ISBN: 978-91-7346-578-6. Within the theoretical framework of holistic environmental ethics, moral status is ascribed to biotic wholes, such as ecosystems, species and landscapes. The purpose of holistic environmental ethics is not entirely clear, since the framework contains conflicting ideas about which properties of the biotic whole contribute to moral status, and to which moral reasons this moral status gives rise. The tensions are organized in three themes: human-centered, integrity-centered, and nature-centered ethics.
          If naturalness is seen as a binary property, it creates a grave incoherence. If naturalness is instead understood in more nuanced terms (so that naturalness can be a question of different degrees or senses), some of these problems become less serious, but new problems emerge. In particular, the question whether a version of holistic environmental ethics that incorporates nature-centeredness may allow human beings a reasonable space remains. If nature-centeredness is rejected, however, several internal tensions within a holistic environmental ethics may be resolved. A plausible ethics should abandon the nature-centered theme, i.e. reject the idea of "natural nature" as being morally significant in itself.
         The idea that integrity gives rise to moral status of a biotic whole is more fruitful, and can also be combined with most of the particular opinions that might motivate nature-centeredness. Integrity-centeredness may also be consistently combined with human-centeredness, and a holistic environmental ethic may thus provide reasonable room for human beings in nature.

University of Helsinki, Finland. Leena Vilkka finished a Ph.D. thesis, The Varieties of Intrinsic Value in Nature: A Naturistic Approach to Environmental Philosophy (in English), November 1995. The thesis examines the varieties of intrinsic value in nature proposed by various philosophers and then progressively defends an animal-centered philosophy (zoocentrism), a life centered- philosophy (biocentrism) and an ecosystem-centered philosophy (ecocentrism), culminating in a defense of objective intrinsic value in nature and of the rights of animals. The thesis was published in 1997 by Editions Rodopi (Amsterdam/Atlanta) in their Value Inquiry Book Series, Robert Ginsburg, editor. This was the first Ph.D. thesis in Finland in environmental philosophy. The thesis advisor was Ilkka Niiniluoto; the "opponent" at the defense was Holmes Rolston. Vilkka is now a docent at the University of Helsinki, Department of Philosophy.

University of Turku, Finland. Markku Oksanen completed a Ph.D. thesis, summer 1998, published as Nature as Property: Environmental Ethics and the Institution of Ownership. Turku, Finland: Reports from the Department of Practical Philosophy, University of Turku, Volume 10, 1998. ISSN 0786-8111. ISBN 951-29-1191-4 Juhani Pietarinen of the Department of Philosophy was princpial advisor. A study of the conceptual and practical implications of the institution of ownership, when ecological concerns are profoundly taken into account. Can natural things be owned? On what grounds are they ownable? Assuming that natural objects are ownable, how do we apply these norms in practice? The Western understanding of, and the attitude to, nature are changing and the change may extend to concern the institution of ownership. Particularly land ownership is in many cases directly related to the emergence of ecological problems.

University of Tartu, Estonia. Heiki Reila, completed a Master's thesis in 1996. The dissertation is: Teoloogiline keskkonnaeetika ja inimkeskne traditsioon. Mónede uudsete keskkonnaeetika lähete vórdlev analüüs (Environmental Ethics and the Tradition of Anthhropocentrism. A Comparative Analysis of Some New Approaches in Contemporary Theological Ethics Confronting Environmental Problems) (in Estonian). Three approaches are featured: (1) stewardship, chapter 2, with Ronald Preston and James Gustafson as examples; (2) Christian ecofeminism (chapter 3), with Rosemary Radford Reuther and Sallie McFague as examples; and (3) the reverence for life (Chapter 4), with Andrew Linzey as an example. The three are critical of classical Christianity on grounds of (1) the dominion of man, (2) androcentrism, and (3) speciesism. The advisor was Jaanus Noormägi. Reila is a Lutheran pastor at Vandra, Estonia (Address: Heiki Reila, Vändra EE 3461, Estonia).

People's University of China, Beijing. Yang Tongjin completed a Ph. D. thesis: Xifang Huanjing Lunli Sixiang Hanjiu (The Ethical Foundation of Environmental Movements--A Study of Western Environmental Ethics (in Chinese), June 1998. The first doctoral dissertation in China studying Western environmental ethics. The advisor was Luo Guoje, Chair of the Chinese Society of Ethics. Developing an environmental ethics in China requires an analysis of Western environmental ethics. Surveys various types of environmental ethics with detailed analysis of anthropocentric ethics, animal welfare ethics, biocentrism, and ecocentrism. These schools differ in regard to who is morally considerable. Confucian and Taoist virtue ethics can provide grounds for showing how virtuous persons express concern for nonhumans as well as for humans, resulting in a complementarity of humans and nature, a comprehensive and inclusive ethic. Yang continues his research at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. He is the translator for a Chinese edition of Holmes Rolston's Environmental Ethics, in Chinese as Huanjing Lunli xue: Daziran de jiazhi yiji ren dui daziran de yiwu (Beijing: Chinese Social Science Press [Zhongguo Shehui kexue Chuban she], 2000). ISBN 7-5004-2743-3.

Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. Bernard Marsh completed a S.T.D. degree thesis, Towards a Theology of Ecology, 1994. 380 Pages. Facultad de teologia, Universidad de Navarra. The roots of the ecological crisis and the theological responses to it. Positions regarding God and divine creative activity, and some conceptions of the value of human and non-human creatures. Exemplarism and sacramental views of nature as ways of appreciating creation, and emphasis on responsibility, work and virtues as delineating the human role within creation. A theology of ecology that stresses the importance of revelation and builds upon a solid ontological foundation essential for such a theology. This foundation involves an understanding of the value of all creatures and the order in creation. A section: "Anthropology and the Human Itinerary" sketches the role properly belonging to the image and likeness of God in the world with its personal and social dimensions. The impact of sin and redemption on the whole of creation is discussed. Finally, three theological virtues are related to a fully personal response to the ecological crisis.

Loughborough University, UK. John Studley completed in 2005 a Ph.D. thesis, Sustainable Knowledge Systems and Resource Stewardship: in Search of Ethno-Forestry Paradigms for the Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Kham, at Department of Geography. This study examines resource stewardship among indigenous peoples from a neglected angle, that of knowledge sustainability and synergistic bridging, using the cognitive mapping of forest values among Tibetan minority nationalities in Eastern Kham. This involves a critique of the narratives of John Locke. There is compelling evidence suggesting homogeneity in forest values with up to five geospatial paradigms and up to twelve cognitive paradigms.
         Indigenous knowledge cannot be sustained if it is integrated into western knowledge systems due to the lack of conceptual frameworks for cross-cultural integration. Under the rubric of post-modernism, however, there are a number of complimentary trajectories, which provide space for knowledge equity, sustainability and bridging. These trajectories include hypertext theory, paradigm theory, abductive logic, adaptive management, ecospiritual paradigms, and post-modern forestry paradigms. This offers planners globally a means for bridging between local and non-local knowledge systems on the road to sustainable forestry and biodiversity stewardship. Supervisors: D. Slater, E. Brown and T. Skelton. The external examiner was Raymond Bryant, Department of Geography, King College, London University. Online at:
https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/2101

Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium. Nathan Edward Kowalsky completed a Ph.D. thesis, Beyond Natural Evil, . May 2006. The problem of natural evil is largely unresolved in the philosophy of religion and is problematic in environmental ethics. Philosophers of religion presuppose (1) that natural evil is an obvious fact, (2) that suffering equal evil, and (3) that the natural world is obviously improvable and should be improved. Environmental philosophers, for the most part, argue that "anthropocentrism" should be eschewed because it leads to ecological catastrophe. All these presuppositions are in fact anthropocentric and should be eschewed.  To equate suffering with evil is to neglect the difference between species. Judgments of natural evil require the is/ought dichotomy, which functions only so far as it is anthropocentric. Natural evil is not an obvious fact about the world., but such judgments assume an ecological imperialism. The natural world is not naturally improvable. Ecological imperialism is Gnostic. Judgments of natural evil assume anti-theism. They cannot pose a problem for theism. There is no evil in nature. The advisor (promoter) was Ullrich Melle. Kowalsky is now on the faculty at St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta.

University Paris-12 (Paris Val-de-Marne, Créteil, France). Julien Delord completed a Ph. D thesis The Extinction of Species: Historical and Moral Issues of an Ecological Concept in 2003. Global biodiversity is presently falling victim to a major extinction crisis, which also implicates a moral crisis for the human species. I attempt to understand the extent to which the extinction of species is a legitimate subject of moral concern and I consider philosophical arguments that have been formulated to justify the protection of species. I also investigate the historical causes behind this delayed awareness of the ecological significance of extinction. Both the slow intellectual development of the idea of extinction throughout human history and the scientific emergence of the concept are explored. Finally, I investigate the notion of extinction by comparing it with the notion of individual death. I employ a comparative phenomenological and epistemological approach between death and extinction. This leads me to expound an original solution to the issue of nature conservation, the norm of "sauvageté", a "de-ideologized" and functional notion of wildness. The full text (in French) is available at:
http://doxa.scd.univ-paris12.fr:80/theses/th0211085.pdf
The supervisor was Jean Gayon (Paris 1 - La Sorbonne). Delord is now assistant professor in history and philosophy of science, University of Brest, France


Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (University of Leuven). Benjamin Howe completed a Ph.D. thesis,, The Environmental Philosophy of Arne Naess and the History of Its Reception, November 2008. The last living participant in the seminars of the Vienna Circle, Arne Naess, has been considered the founder of a school of thought called deep ecology since the early 1980s. Supporters of this school are said to accept the central concept of his writings on environmentalism, what he refers to as the deep ecology movement. I critically examine this convention by looking at not only his environmental philosophy, but also, his place in the history of analytic philosophy.   Naess claims that his environmental philosophy is informed by the approach to semantics that he began to defend during the late 1930s in reaction to logical positivism's conception of meaning. From 1945 to 1960, Naess and a group of Norwegian philosophers and social scientists put his philosophy of language into practice by designing a social science of semantics that collected data on ordinary speakers' understanding of expressions, such as "democracy" and "truth."
          Despite convention, the literature on Naess does not warrant confidence in his status as deep ecology's founder. The school's supporters defend competing interpretations of his concept of the deep ecology movement, and Naess has done little to clarify his position. He rarely mentions his supporters and never states what, if any, common ground he shares with them. All commentators ignore some of his key texts and misunderstand the relationship between his philosophy of language and the concept of the deep ecology movement The first philosophers to identify themselves as deep ecologists overlooked his most significant papers, including one that compares his environmental philosophy to a study on semantics and political rhetoric that he conducted for UNESCO.    The advisor was Ullrich Melle.     Howe is now teaching philosophy Seattle University

Wuhan University, Wuhan, China. Zhao, Hong-mei completed and published a Ph.D. dissertation at the Department of Philosophy, Wuhan University. Mei Xue Zou Xiang Huang Ye: Lun Luo Er Si Dun Huan Jing Mei Xue Si Xiang (Aesthetics Gone Wild: On the Thought of Rolston's Environmental Aesthetic). Beijing: Chinese Social Science Publishing Co., 2009. ISBN 978-7-5004-8146-1. LC Call #: BH301.E58 Z43 2009. Rolston's positive analysis of rich meanings in the word "wild" relate to spontaneous creativity and freedom, an important support of, and foil to, artifacted creativity and freedom in culture. Humans emerge from this wildness, and in scientific technology, they increasingly set themselves against wildness, and this leaves them homeless. Rolston contests traditional axiologies of valueless nature. He claims we ought to discover and value wild nature. In aesthetics, this leads Rolston both to make claims about aesthetic value in nature and to distinguish such value from that of from art in culture. He also finds that such aesthetic value in nature is understood more deeply if it is science-based. A further dimension is that there is positive aesthetic experience in the struggle for existence in nature. This revises accounts of what we might first think to be ugly in nature. Appreciation of wildness is not the peaceful observation of the picturesque, but requires immersion and experience of life in the wild, immersion of body and of spirit. This does give us a sense of being at home in the wild nature out of which humans evolved. It also moves us from beauty to responsibility for the conservation of nature." Zhao also draws some comparisons and contrasts with Asian thought. The advisor was Chen, Wangheng.

Fuhan University, Shanghai, China. Yang, Yingzi completed in 2007 and published a Ph.D. dissertation at Fuhan University: Lunli de Shengtai Xiangdu—Luoersidun huanjing lunli sixian yanjiu (Ecological Orientation of Ethics: A Study in Rolston's Environmental Ethics). Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2010. ISBN 978-7-5004-8712-8. LC Call #: GE42.Y56 2010. Western concepts of environmental ethics, appearing from the 1970s as a result of the environmental crisis, have affirmed that nature warrants moral standing. Holmes Rolston III, a founder of environmental ethics, claims that nature has intrinsic value, and humans a duty to respect this. He lays the ontological foundations for extending ethics to ecosystems, with which humans have a dialectical and complementary relation, and he criticizes injustice in modern capitalist societies, which do not appropriately respect nature. This moral blind-spot he also traces to the individualism, anthropocentrism, and vulgar materialism that have resulted from the Western Enlightenment. This implies that the ecological crisis cannot ultimately be resolved with the modernity of the contemporary Western worldview, but will require radical transformation of such modernity. Three important implications of this ecological orientation of ethics are: (1) We need an ecological orientation of our lifestyles and habitats, realizing that we live not simply in culture but also are supported by nature. (2) We need to revise self-interests with an altruistic sense of living in a community that is prior to oneself. (3) Growing out of this dialectic and complementarity, we need a sense of living in two fields, nature and culture, with a harmonious life. In this way, an ecological orientation of ethics has a universal and profound philosophical and social significance. In the published book, Holmes Rolston writes a forward, which is in both English and Chinese. Yang Yingzi is now a faculty member in philosophy at Hainan Normal University, which is located on Hainan Island, PR China. yyzethics@yahoo.com.cn

University of North Texas.   Gao, Shan, who is from China, completed a Ph.D. thesis, The Beauty of Nature as the Foundation for Environmental Ethics: China and the West at the University of North Texas, Department of Philosophy, spring 2012. See under graduate studies in North America.

University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia.    Haydn Washington completed a Ph.D., thesis, The Wilderness Knot, 2006. The confused and tangled meanings that surround the term "wilderness." To some it is the original and best of planet Earth, to others it is just a Western construct. This confusion has reached the stage where, despite the formal definitions of wilderness, some scholars can argue to protect large natural areas, yet be highly critical of the term wilderness. There are at least five strands that make up the wilderness knot. These are philosophical, political, cultural, justice and exploitation strands. Wilderness is disliked by both Modernist thought as well as some strands of Postmodernism and is something of an orphan philosophically. Only Romantics, some Deep Ecologists, and some environmentalists champion its cause. Wilderness is also caught up in the debate around anthropocentrism and ecocentrism - or whether humans or the whole ecosystem should be central in one's world view. Wilderness also gets involved in the debate about humans being part of nature. Some confuse our evolutionary heritage (where we obviously are part of nature) with a question of ethics. That humans are natural does not mean that what we do is necessarily ethical or good, or even sensible. There is also the issue of a philosophical concern about creating a human/nature split (= dualism) and whether this is somehow related to wilderness. There is legitimate worry about this human/nature dualism, but Postmodernist philosophers such as Cronon and Callicott, who seek to link this to wilderness. only confuse the term.

Jilin University, China. Yan, Wang completed a Ph.D. thesis, Huan Jing Lun Li:Ren yu Zi Ran Guan Xi He Xie de Lun Li Zhi Dian (Environmental Ethics: the Ethical Fulcrum of the Harmonious Relationship between Humans and Nature) , Philosophy Department, June, 2008. An account of how environmental ethics has turned out to be an ethical fulcrum between humans and nature. The thesis begins with the generation and background of environmental ethics, its originating roots, follows its ideological evolution, modern constructions,and appraises the value and significance of environmental ethics. It demonstrates the possibility and rationality of environmental ethics as a philosophical paradigm. It provides essential theoretical preparations for establishing environmental ethical disciplines with Chinese characteristics. Yan Wang is now an associate professor in School of Humanity and Sociology, BeiHang University, Beijing, China.