Ben Dixon, Stephen F. Austin State University, « Toward a New Understanding of Leopold’s Land Ethic » (online | en ligne)

Ben Dixon, Stephen F. Austin State University, « Toward a New Understanding of Leopold’s Land Ethic »

Préinscription requise | Registration required: ely.mermans@umontreal.ca

Abstract

I argue that a proper understanding of Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic” necessitates affirming three largely unrecognized propositions. First, Leopold identifies health as a sufficient condition for moral standing; this has implications not only for ecosystems, but for individual organisms as well. Second, Leopold sets the value of health alongside other privileged values, which makes him a robust moral pluralist. Lastly, in order to negotiate competing values brought about by such pluralism, Leopold embraces a consistency maximization of values. In putting forward these ideas, I compare their reasonableness to those interpretive elements of Leopold’s most well-known articulator and defender, J. Baird Callicott. What emerges from my arguments is a new, more fitting understanding of Leopold’s Land Ethic.