Hugh P. McDonald – författare

A comprehensive look at how John Dewey's ethics can inform environmental issues.Hugh P. McDonald's John Dewey and Environmental Philosophy breaks new ground by applying Dewey's insights to a new approach to philosophy of the environment; the concern for the rights of animals; the preservation of rare species, habitats, and landscapes; and the health of the whole ecology. The book summarizes much of the current literature on environmental ethics, concentrating on the writings of major figures in the movement: Tom Regan, J. Baird Callicott, Holmes Rolston, and Bryan Norton. The heart of the book consists of a detailed analysis of Dewey's ethics, his theory of intrinsic value, and his holistic approach to moral justification. Arguing against the idea that Dewey's philosophy is anthropocentric, McDonald makes a strong case that using Dewey's philosophy will result in a superior framework for environmental ethics.

This book treats values as the basis for all of philosophy, an approach distinct from critiquing theories of value and far rarer. “First Philosophy,” the effort to justify the foundations for a system of philosophy, is one of the main issues that divide philosophers today. McDonald’s philosophy of values is a comprehensive attempt to replace philosophies of “existence,” “being,” “experience,” the “subject,” or “language,” with a philosophy that locates value as most basic. This transformation is a radical move within Western philosophy as a whole, since it has never been done in such a thoroughgoing way. Hugh P. McDonald makes a comprehensive case against first philosophy as metaphysical, by mounting a case against all metaphysical systems of philosophy.Radical Axiology: A First Philosophy of Values is a fresh start for a rebirth of philosophy. While other movements debate the “death of philosophy,” this book radically re-evaluates the direction of philosophy by discovering values at the basis of all philosophy. This reorientation addresses the question of what the love of wisdom can mean for us today.

This book presents a major new value theory, value as creative actualization. The book takes a radically new approach to values. All potential values, whether artistic, scientific, political, or economic must be creatively actualized in the world. The theory argues for an active view in which value involves creation of novelties and thereby changes the world in some respect. Thus value is neither transcendent nor subjective, as a good of some sort has emerged in the world. Moreover, creative actualization means we can actualize standards, ideals, kinds and other norms. Creative actualization thereby dissolves the distinction between idealism and realism, since value changes the “real” with novel goods. The ideal is made real by creative actualization.The book examines traditional issues such as inherent value, modes, and meaning in the light of value as creative actualization. The later part of the book critically evaluates the history of value theory, arguing that it is insensitive to the environment and inconsistent with inherent values.Creative actualization extends historical pragmatism in novel ways. This value theory includes an ecocentric ethic, tying value theory to debates in environmental philosophy. The theory attempts to take the environment into consideration in ethics.

This book evaluates competing theories on speculative topics, such as nature, technology, space, time, and the relation of mind and matter. The general thesis is the actuality of principles in the form of laws, norms and other general principles in a plastic world, tying together the actualization of “oughts” and other principles. The result is a pluralistic universe, endorsing the pragmatic view of the world. The book examines nature, being, reality and other traditional issues in this light, critically evaluating many historical approaches.

Environmental Philosophy: A Revaluation of Cosmopolitan Ethics from an Ecocentric Standpoint calls for a new approach to ethics. Starting from the necessity for all life of air, water, and food, the book revalues the relation of ethics and environmentalism. Using insights of the environmental ethicists, environmental ethics becomes the model for ethics as a whole. Humans are part of a larger environment. Cosmopolitanism should be revised in accord with environmental ethics.The book applies a new theory of values to the relation of value and obligation, and of duty, rights and virtue, to accord with ecocentrism. The book also critically evaluates Utilitarianism and the self interest theory. Other chapters address population, species preservation and a practical program for environmental policy.