Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
.
112
I follow a similar approach
in this section in that I do not seek to develop a logically impeccable
position, but to devise an appropriate set of propositions to guide our
relations with the non-human world in a way that will be bene
into people
'
s attitudes and ways of life
'
cial for
the health of ecosystems.
2.5.1 The dominion perspective of nature
In a ground-breaking critique of western attitudes towards the environ-
ment, Lynn White Jr identi
srelationship
with nature as the source of environmental crises that were beginning to
manifest themselves in the late 1960s.
113
The
ed two aspects of humankind
'
rst is that nature has been
seen predominantly as having value only to the extent that it can be used
by us to advance our economic and social goals.
114
Efforts to move away
from this valuation by arguing that nature should be valued intrinsically
have, as I noted above, provided a recurring theme in environmental
ethical literature.
Thesecondisthattheultimatesourceofinstrumentalvalue,and
therefore of the environmental degradation for which we are responsi-
ble, is humanity
s hubristic perception of itself as a species apart from
nature.
115
This perspective was born initially from the
'
view
in Judaeo-Christian theology of the natural world as having been created
for humankind
'
dominion
'
suse.
116
Growing con
dence in our ability to understand
nature and manipulate it to our own ends during the early modern and
enlightenment periods of the 17th and 18th centuries and the techno-
logical revolutions that followed enabled us to give practical effect
'
'
to
.
117
Notwithstanding the
that which Christianity had already sanctioned
'
112
Ibid
.
113
L. White Jr.,
'
The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis
'
(1967) 155 Science, 1203.
114
Ibid
.; Curry,
'
Ecological Ethics
'
,pp.54
-
6.
115
Norton,
'
Marine Environmental Ethics
'
,pp.78
-
9.
116
Alder and Wilkinson,
'
Environmental Law and Ethics
'
,p.51;G.L.Schaab,
'
Beyond
Dominion and Stewardship
in P. Burdon (ed.) Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of
Earth Jurisprudence (Kent Town: Wake
'
eld Press, 2011), pp. 107
-
9; Curry,
'
Ecological
4.
117
Alder and Wilkinson,
Ethics
'
,pp.33
-
'
Environmental Law and Ethics
'
,pp.51
-
2; P. Burdon,
'
Eco-centric
Paradigm
in P. Burdon (ed.) Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence
(Kent Town: Wake
eld Press, 2011), pp. 85
'
-
6; B. Vitek and W. Jackson,
'
Introduction:
Taking Ignorance Seriously
in B. Vitek and W. Jackson (eds) The Virtues of Ignorance:
Complexity, Sustainability and the Limits of Knowledge (Lexington: University Press of
Kentucky, 2008), pp. 1
'
in
B. Vitek and W. Jackson (eds) The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability and the
-
5; J. Marocco,
'
Climate Change and the Limits of Knowledge
'
