Dialogue 38 (4):699-718 (
1999)
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Abstract
It has now been nearly 25 years since Richard Routley argued persuasively, at the 15th World Congress of Philosophy, that we can discern a need for a “new, an environmental, ethic.” And yet, students of environmental ethics still sometimes feel that we have to defend our discipline as serious philosophy. My purpose here is to revisit, from a somewhat different direction, the ground covered by Routley, and argue that environmental philosophy is not “pop” metaphysics or a trivial branch of applied ethics, but something that, if done well, could be a whole new approach to philosophy ⎯ one which could revitalize our discipline and re-establish its relevance in a troubled time when nothing might be more valuable for humanity than a careful rethinking of first principles