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Notes
For example, Joan Iverson Nassauer begins her essay with the pronouncement, “We should construct a kind of cultural necessity to underpin ecological health across the landscape, as if there were no other choice” (2008: p 363; italics added). Stan Godlovitch has a similar view of the goal of environmental aesthetics: “For an aesthetic appeal to work, an argument must be mounted that identifies in nature that which overridingly commands our regard” (2008: p 133; italics added).
Moreover, in the fourth and final section of the volume, where aesthetic sophistication is supposed to translate into an invigorated environmental ethic, the pay-off seems slight. Aside from Joan Iverson Nassauer’s interesting discussion of urban landscapes (2008), a discussion that, not incidentally, diverges from the volume’s overwhelming emphasis on wilderness preservation, I could not find any instances where the aesthetic perspective enhances understanding of a complex issue. This reinforces the impression that the purpose of environmental aesthetics is not to illuminate but to motivate.
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Barrett, N. Allen Carlson and Sheila Lintott (eds): Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism: From Beauty to Duty. J Agric Environ Ethics 24, 659–668 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-010-9258-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-010-9258-2