Thinking Like a Planet

J. Baird Callicott is University Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy and author or editor of a score of books and author of dozens of journal articles, encyclopedia articles, and book chapters. His research goes forward on three main fronts: theoretical environmental ethics, comparative environmental philosophy, philosophy of ecology and conservation biology. He taught the world's first course in environmental ethics in 1971 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Baird Callicott's magisterial book brings together science and philosophy in a fascinating search for an ethic that truly responds to the global-scale reality of today's most pressing environmental concerns. Highly recommended.

• Introduction ; PART 1: THE LAND ETHIC ; 1. A Sand County Almanac ; 1.1 The Author ; 1.2 The Provenance of the Book ; 1.3 The Unity of A Sand County Almanac-An Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview ; 1.4 The Argument of the Foreword-Toward Worldview Remediation ; 1.5 The Argument in Part I-The Inter-subjective Biotic Community-Introduced ; 1.6 The Argument of Part I-The Inter-subjective Biotic Community-Driven Home ; 1.7 The Argument in Part II-The Evolutionary Aspect: Time and Telos ; 1.8 The Argument in Part II-The Evolutionary Aspect: Beauty, Kinship, and Spirituality ; 1.9 The Argument of Part II-The Ecological Aspect ; 1.10 The Argument of Part II-The Pivotal Trope: "Thinking Like a Mountain" ; 1.11 Norton's Narrow Interpretation of Leopold's Worldview-remediation Project ; 1.12 The Argument of Part III-To "See" with the Ecologist's "Mental Eye" ; 1.13 The Argument of Part III-Axiological Implications of the Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview ; 1.14 The Argument of Part III-The Normative Implications of the Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview ; 1.15 The Persuasive Power of Leopold's Style of Writing ; 1.16 The New Shifting Paradigm in Ecology and the Evolutionary-Ecological Worldview ; 1.17 The Challenge Before Us ; 2. The Land Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Philosophical and Evolutionary Foundations ; 2.1 The Odysseus Vignette ; 2.2 Expansion of the Scope of Ethics Over Time (?) ; 2.3 Ethical Criteria/Norms/Ideals versus (un)Ethical Behavior/Practice ; 2.4 Ethics Ecologically (Biologically) Speaking ; 2.5 Darwin's Account of the Origin of Ethics by Natural Selection ; 2.6 Darwin's Account of the Extension of Ethics ; 2.7 The Community Concept in Ecology ; 2.8 The Humean Foundations of Darwin's Evolutionary Account of the Moral Sense ; 2.9 Universalism and Relativism: Hume and Darwin ; 2.10 How Hume Anticipates Darwin's Account of the Origin and Expansion of Ethics ; 2.11 Shades of the Social-Contract Theory of Ethics in "The Land Ethic" ; 2.12 Individualism in (Benthamic) Utilitarianism and (Kantian) Deontology ; 2.13 Holism in Hume's Moral Philosophy ; 2.14 Holism in "The Land Ethic" ; 2.15 The Land Ethic and the Problem of Ecofascism Resolved ; 2.16 Prioritizing Cross-community Duties and Obligations ; 2.17 Is The Land Ethic Anthropocentric or Non-anthropocentric? ; 3. The Land Ethic (an Ought): A Critical Account of Its Ecological Foundations (an Is) ; 3.1 Moore's Naturalistic Fallacy ; 3.2 Hume's Is/Ought Dichotomy and the Land Ethic ; 3.3 How Hume Bridges the Lacuna Between Is-statements and Ought-statements ; 3.4 How Kant Infers Ought-statements from Is-statements in Hypothetical Imperatives ; 3.5 The Specter of Hume's Is/Ought Dichotomy Finally Exorcised ; 3.6 The Roles of Reason and Feeling in Hume's Ethical Theory Generally and Leopold's Land Ethic Particularly ; 3.7 How the General Theory of Evolution Informs the Land Ethic ; 3.8 How Ecosystem Ecology Informs the Land Ethic-Beyond the Biota ; 3.9 How Ecosystem Ecology Informs the Land Ethic-A Fountain of Energy ; 3.10 How Organismic Ecology Informs the Land Ethic ; 3.11 How Mechanistic Ecology Informs the Land Ethic ; 3.12 How the Ecosystem Paradigm Returns Ecology to Its Organismic Roots ; 3.13 How Leopold Anticipates Hierarchy Theory in "The Land Ethic" ; 3.14 Ecological Ontology and the Community Paradigm in Ecology ; 3.15 Ecological Ontology and the Ecosystem Paradigm in Ecology ; 3.16 The "Flux of Nature" Paradigm Shift in Contemporary Ecology and "The Land Ethic" ; 3.17 A Revised Summary Moral Maxim for the Land Ethic ; 4. The Land Ethic and the Science of Ethics: From the Seventeenth through the Twentieth Centuries ; 4.1 Hobbes's Science of Ethics ; 4.2 Locke's Science of Ethics ; 4.3 Hume's Science of Ethics ; 4.4 Kant's Science of Ethics ; 4.5 The Utilitarian Science of Ethics ; 4.6 How Logical Positivism Cleaved Apart Science and Ethics ; 4.7 Ayer's Migration of a Science of Ethics from Philosophy to the Social Sciences ; 4.8 Kohlberg's Social Science of Ethics ; 4.9 Gilligan's Social Science of Ethics ; 4.10 Group Selection in Darwin's Science of Ethics ; 4.11 Group Selection in Wynne-Edwards's Evolutionary Biology ; 4.12 Williams's Attack on Group Selection ; 4.13 Huxley's and Williams's Anti-natural (and Anti-logical) View of Ethics ; 4.14 Sociobiology: Wilson's Neo-Darwinian Account of the Origin of Ethics ; 4.15 The Fallacies of Division and Composition in the Sociobiological Science of Ethics ; 4.16 Sociobiology and Biological Determinism ; 4.17 The Evolutionary Foundations of the Land Ethic in Light of the Modern and the New Syntheses in Evolutionary Biology ; 5. The Land Ethic and the Science of Ethics: In the Light of Evolutionary Moral Psychology ; 5.1 Singer's Response to the Evolutionary Account of Ethics ; 5.2 Rachels' Response to the Evolutionary Account of Ethics ; 5.3 Darwin's Alternative to Animal Ethics a la Singer and Rachels ; 5.4 Midgley's Alternative to Animal Ethics a la Singer and Rachels ; 5.5 A Community-based Analysis of Ethical Partiality ; 5.6 A Community-based Analysis of Ethical Impartiality ; 5.7 Dennett, Singer, Arnhart, and Haidt on the Philosophical Implications of Darwinism ; 5.8 Group Selection Revisited ; 5.9 The Analogy between Language and Ethics ; 5.10 Hume on Nature and Nurture in Ethics ; 5.11 Post-Positivist Ethical Absolutism ; 5.12 Wherefore Post-Positivist Ethical Rationalism and Exclusionism ; 5.13 Moral Norms in Humean Ethics Analogous to Medical Norms ; 5.14 Critically Appraising Moral Norms in Terms of Intra-social Functionality and Inter-social Harmony ; 5.15 A Humean-Darwinian Science of Ethics and Constrained Cultural Relativism ; 5.16 The Philosophical Foundations of the Land Ethic Vindicated by the Contemporary Science of Ethics, but Limited to Ecological Spatial and Temporal Scales ; PART II: THE EARTH ETHIC ; 6. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Philosophical Foundations ; 6.1 Leopold and Biblical Tropes ; 6.2 Ezekiel and Virtue Ethics-Both Individualistc and Holistic ; 6.3 Ezekiel and Responsibility to Future Generations ; 6.4 Ezekiel and Deontological Respect for the Earth as a Living Thing ; 6.5 Leopold Dimly Envisions Hierarchy Theory in "Some Fundamentals" ; 6.6 How Leopold Interprets P. D. Ouspensky and His Book, Tertium Organum ; 6.7 The Earth's Soul or Consciousness ; 6.8 A Scalar Resolution of a "Dead" Earth versus the Earth as a "Living Being" ; 6.9 Respect for Life as Such ; 6.10 Leopold's Charge that Both Religion and Science are Anthropocentric ; 6.11 How Leopold Ridicules Metaphysical Anthropocentrism ; 6.12 Leopold's Use of Irony as an Instrument of Ridicule ; 6.13 Norton's Reading of Leopold as an Anthropocentric Pragmatist ; 6.14 Ouspensky, Leopold, and "Linguistic Pluralism"-according to Norton ; 6.15 Leopold's Return to Virtue Ethics ; 6.16 Leopold's Non-anthropocentric Anthropocentrism ; 6.17 The Leopold Earth Ethic: A Summary and a Preview ; 7. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Scientific Metaphysical Foundations ; 7.1 Ouspensky's Metaphysics and the Four-dimensional Space-time Continuum ; 7.2 Vernadsky's Metaphysics and the Four-dimensional Space-time Continuum: Space ; 7.3 Vernadsky's Metaphysics and the Four-dimensional Space-time Continuum: Time ; 7.4 Vernadsky's Doctrine of the Abiogenesis of Life on Earth ; 7.5 Venadsky's Anti-vitalism ; 7.6 Vernadsky's Lasting Contribution to Biogeochemistry and Gaian Science ; 7.7 Teilhard's Concept of the Noosphere ; 7.8 Vernadsky's Concept of the Noosphere ; 7.9 Scientific Knowledge as a Planetary Phenomenon ; 7.10 The Biosphere Crosses the Atlantic ; 7.11 The Advent of the Gaia Hypothesis ; 7.12 The Biosphere and Gaia Ecologized ; 7.13 Vernadsky's Biosphere and Lovelock's Gaia: Similarities and Differences ; 7.14 Leopold's Living Thing, Vernadsky's Biosphere, and Lovelock's Gaia ; 7.15 Is the Gaia Hypothesis Necessarily Teleological and Anthropomorphic? ; 7.16 Varieties of the Earth's Soul or Consciousness ; 7.17 Personal Speculations on the Earth's Soul or Consciousness ; 8. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Biocentric Deontological Foundations ; 8.1 Leopold's Biocentric Earth Ethic and the Living Earth ; 8.2 Gaian Ontology ; 8.3 Gaian Norms ; 8.4 Schweitzer's Reverence-for-Life Ethic ; 8.5 Schweitzer's Reverence-for-Life Ethic Rooted in the Metaphysics of Schopenhauer ; 8.6 Feinberg's Conativism ; 8.7 Feinberg's Conativism as a Foundation for a Biocentric Earth Ethic? ; 8.8 Goodpaster's Biocentrism ; 8.9 Goodpaster's Holistic Biocentrism as a Foundation for a Biocentric Earth Ethic? ; 8.10 Feinberg the Tie that Binds Schweitzer and Goodpaster ; 8.11 Taylor's Individualistic Biocentrism and Regan's Case for Animal Rights ; 8.12 Taylor's Deontology and Teleological Centers of Life ; 8.13 Taylor's Biocentrism as a Foundation for a Leopold Earth Ethic? ; 8.14 Rolston's Biocentrism as a Foundation for a Leopold Earth Ethic? ; 8.15 Goodpaster's Biocentrism Provides the Best Theoretical Support for a Non-anthropocentric Earth Ethic ; 9. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Anthropocentric Foundations: The Natural Contract and Environmental Virtue Ethics ; 9.1 No Need to Patronize Gaia with Biocentric Moral Considerability ; 9.2 The Concept of Anthropocentrism Revisited ; 9.3 War and Peace ; 9.4 The Social Contract: The Ancient and Modern Theories ; 9.5 Du Contrat Social au Contrat Naturel ; 9.6 War or Peace? ; 9.7 The French Connection: Larrere ; 9.8 The French Connection: Latour ; 9.9 The French-Canadian Connection: Dussault ; 9.10 Virtue Ethics ; 9.11 Aristotelian Virtue Ethics ; 9.12 Environmental Virtue Ethics ; 9.13 Holistic Virtue Ethics: Self-respecting Crafts ; 9.14 Holistic Virtue Ethics: The Polis as a Social Whole ; 9.15 Holistic Virtue Ethics: Nomos versus Phusis ; 9.16 Holistic Virtue Ethics: Self-respecting Societies ; 9.17 The Dialectic of Social-Contract Theory and Virtue Ethics ; 10. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Anthropocentric Foundations-The limits of Rational Individualism ; 10.1 The Year was 1988 and Serres and Jamieson were the First Philosophical Responders ; 10.2 Jamieson Frames the Theoretical Problem: The Legacy of Smith-and-Jones Ethical Theory ; 10.3 Jamieson Suggests an Alternative Moral Philosophy-Virtue Ethics ; 10.4 The Moral Ontology and Logic of Smith-and-Jones Ethical Thinking ; 10.5 The Essence-and-Accident Moral Ontology of Rational Individualism ; 10.6 Homo Economicus and Homo Ethicus-Two Sides of the Same Rational Coin ; 10.7 Saving Rational Individualism: Moral Mathematics ; 10.8 Saving Rational Individualism: Proximate Ethical Holism ; 10.9 The Failure of Rational Individualism: Protracted Spatial Scale ; 10.10 The Failure of Rational Individualism: Protracted Temporal Scale ; 10.11 The Role of "Theoretical Ineptitude" in Gardiner's Perfect Moral Storm ; 11. The Earth Ethic: A Critical Account of Its Anthropocentric Foundations-Responsibility to Future Generations and for Global Human Civilization ; 11.1 Moral Ontology: Relationally Defined and Constituted Moral Beings ; 11.2 Moral Ontology: Ethical Holism ; 11.3 Moral Psychology: The Moral Sentiments ; 11.4 Responsibility to Immediate Posterity ; 11.5 Responsibility to the Unknown Future Equals Responsibility for Global Human Civilization ; 11.6 Summary and Conclusion ; Appendix ; "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest"-by Aldo Leopold ; Notes ; Index