Alienation and Nature in Environmental Philosophy

Description

Many environmental scientists, scholars and activists characterise our situation as one of alienation from nature, but this notion can easily seem meaningless or irrational. In this book, Simon Hailwood critically analyses the idea of alienation from nature and argues that it can be a useful notion when understood pluralistically. He distinguishes different senses of alienation from nature pertaining to different environmental contexts and concerns, and draws upon a range of philosophical and environmental ideas and themes including pragmatism, eco-phenomenology, climate change, ecological justice, Marxism and critical theory. His novel perspective shows that different environmental concerns - both anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric - can dovetail, rather than compete with, each other, and that our alienation from nature need not be something to be regretted or overcome. His book will interest a broad readership in environmental philosophy and ethics, political philosophy, geography and environmental studies.

Simon Hailwood is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Exploring Nozick: Beyond Anarchy, State and Utopia (1996) and How to Be a Green Liberal: Nature, Value and Liberal Philosophy (2004). He is also Managing Editor of the journal Environmental Values.

'Simon Hailwood argues powerfully that there is no single philosophical lens through which to view the complexities of the environmental crisis - much less evaluate and 'solve' them. He makes a compelling case for a pragmatic approach, arguing that alienation is an unavoidable - and even necessary - feature of our relation with nature. This 'reality check' is one of the most important contributions to environmental thinking and practice of recent years.' Andrew Dobson, Keele University 'Simon Hailwood has produced a philosophically sophisticated and very timely analysis of the current environmental crisis through the lens of the concept of alienation ... It's a fine book and a valuable contribution to environmental philosophy.' Byron Williston, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 'The complexity comes in with Hailwood's painstaking attention to the intellectual heritage - recent and more historical - of deployments of alienation and estrangement in critiques of social life, as well as in the environmental context. And though environmental concerns motivate the book, and remain in the foreground throughout, Hailwood does a service for readers who, like me, are not well versed in the philosophical debates that focus on the richly normative conceptions of personhood associated with (forgive the simplification) the 'Continental tradition'.' Zev Trachtenberg, Environmental Values