Environmental Ethics: The Central Issues

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Description

Environmental Ethicsprovides an accessible, lively, and up-to-date introduction to the central issues and controversies in environmental ethics. Requiring no previous knowledge of philosophy or ethical theory, the book will be of interest to students, environmental scientists, environmental policy makers, and anyone curious to know what philosophers are saying today about the urgent environmental challenges we face.

The book is divided into two parts.Part Onedeals with theoretical issues in environmental philosophy, examining a variety of ethical and environmental theories that provide diverse and thought-provoking perspectives on critical ecological issues.Part Twoturns to applied environmental ethics, addressing current debates on topics such as climate change, biodiversity loss, wilderness preservation, responsibilities to future generations, population growth, overconsumption, food ethics, and ecological activism.

Features include:

• Clear explanations of key concepts and theories that lie at the heart of current debates in environmental ethics
• A mix of theory of practice that permits readers to apply diverse theoretical perspectives to key environmental debates
• A wealth of pedagogical aids, including chapter summaries, discussion questions, suggested readings, and a glossary of important terms

Reviews

"This is a wonderful text! It is clear, comprehensive, and balanced. The Current Issues sections are extremely well-researched while remaining very accessible, making them valuable to students and professionals alike. I'll use this book." -- Frederik Kaufmann, Ithaca College
"Environmental ethics is a constantly changing field of study. Bassham's book is a well-balanced treatment of the central environmental issues for our time and place. It rightly locates climate change for us today as 'the mother of all environmental problems.'" -- James P Sterba, University of Notre Dame
"Bassham's highly accessible writing offers applied ethical thinking within a helpful theoretical framework, and properly positions environmental ethics as central to our collective future." -- Kristin Wolf, Champlain College
"[T]he new introductory text Environmental Ethics: The Central Issues (2021) approaches moral issues holistically, with an eye to arguments and their application. Gregory Bassham offers an accessible and affordable multi-directional blueprint to help us think about current problems. Environmental Ethics engages broad enough issues to attract a variety of learners, including philosophy, public policy, and environmental science majors. "As a blueprint, it is compact enough to aid those who wish to veer off the beaten path. This encourages a range of approaches in the classroom, opening space for instructors to touch on the history, development and interconnectivity of philosophical ideas. We can effortlessly move from principles in Kant or Mill (Chapter 1), to those challenged by biocentrism and ecocentrism (Chapters 4 and 5), and see how they play out today vis--vis environmental justice (Chapters 8 or 11). Or, we might connect virtue ethics with deep ecology (Chapter 6) and civil disobedience (Chapter 14). "On the whole, Environmental Ethics will be a great addition for a variety of individuals. Instructors wishing to change up their course materials will find this short text helpful for getting to the heart of key arguments and fresh issues. Those new to the environmental side of applied ethics will also greatly benefit. Lastly, independent learners, students and environmentalists will find countless starting points for further exploration." Zachary Vereb, University of Mississippi, in Environmental Values
"This book is fantastic! Prior to this semester, I had never taught environmental ethics and had minimal exposure to the topic. Teaching from Environmental Ethics: The Central Issues has been extremely helpful to me and my students. In fact, I took a poll in my class and every student agreed that the book is extremely helpful, well written, and worthy of recommendation." Ryan Lemasters, Western Michigan University

Author Bio

Gregory Bassham is formerly Professor of Philosophy at King's College (Pennsylvania). He is the author, co-author, or editor of nine books, including Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction (6th ed. 2019), and The Philosophy Book: 250 Milestones in the History of Philosophy (2016).