Nature's Edge

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Description

Nature's Edge brings together leading environmental thinkers from the natural sciences, geography, political science, religion, and philosophy to explore the complex facets of boundary formation and negotiation at the heart of our environmental problems. The contributors provide a fresh look at how our lives depend on the lines drawn and ask how those lines must be reinscribed, blurred, or even erased to prepare for a sustainable future.

Resolving environmental problems calls for the negotiation of multiple, intersecting boundaries—natural, social, political, geographical, and ethical. From the differentiation of species to the formation of communities and moral values, environmental theorists are constantly confronted with a palimpsest of thresholds and mappings: Can nature and culture be divided? Are natural divisions discovered or created? How do political borders and moral economies shape community-building and social transformation?
Acknowledgments

An Introduction to the Problem of Boundaries in Ecological Theory and Practice
Charles S. Brown

Part I: The Human/Nature Divide and the Nature of Boundaries

1. Boundaries and Darwin: Bridging the Great Divide
Max Oelschlaeger

2. Lamarck Redux: Temporal Scale as the Key to the Boundary Between the Human and Natural Worlds
J. Baird Callicott

3. The Ethical Boundaries of Animal Biotechnology: Descartes, Spinoza, and Darwin
Strachan Donnelley

4. Cutting Nature at the Seams: Beyond Species Boundaries in a World of Diversity
Jon Jensen

5. Respect for Experience as a Way into the Problem of Moral Boundaries
Charles S. Brown

6. Boundarylessness: Introducing a Systems Heuristic for Conceptualizing Complexity
Beth Dempster

Part II: Community, Values, and Sustainability

7. Boundaries on the Edge
Irene J. Klaver

8. Remapping Land Use: Remote Sensing, Institutional Approaches, and Landscape Boundaries
Firooza Pavri

9. Boundaries, Communities, and Politics
Anna L. Peterson

10. The Moral Economy and Politics of Water in the Arid American West
T. Clay Arnold

11. The Need for a Taxonomy of Boundaries
Wes Jackson and Jerry Glover

12. How to do Things with Food: A Plea for Multiple Ontologies
Bruce Hirsch

13. Culture and Cultivation: Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Agriculture
Ted Toadvine

Notes on Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie générale
• Philosophie
• Environmental science
• History of philosophy
• Engineering & Technology

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 05 juillet 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791479902
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Boundary Explorations in Ecological Theory and Practice Edited by Charles S. Brown and Ted Toadvine

Nature’s Edge

SUNY series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics J. Baird Callicott and John van Buren, editors

Nature’s Edge

Boundary Explorations in Ecological Theory and Practice

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Edited by Charles S. Brown and Ted Toadvine

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2007 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nature’s edge : boundary explorations in ecological theory and practice / edited by Charles S. Brown, Ted Toadvine. p. cm. — (SUNY series in environmental philosophy and ethics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978–0–7914–7121–0 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978–0–7914–7122–7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Human ecology—Philosophy. 2. Boundaries—Philosophy. 3. Environmental protection. 4. Environmental ethics. I. Brown, Charles S., 1950– II. Toadvine, Ted, 1968–.

GF21.N37 2007 304.2—dc22

200623731

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments

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Contents

vii

An Introduction to the Problem of Boundaries in Ecological Theory and Practice Charles S. Brown ix Part I: The Human/Nature Divide and the Nature of Boundaries Chapter 1:Boundaries and Darwin: Bridging the Great Divide Max Oelschlaeger 3 Chapter 2:Lamarck Redux: Temporal Scale as the Key to the Boundary Between the Human and Natural Worlds J. Baird Callicott 19 Chapter 3:The Ethical Boundaries of Animal Biotechnology: Descartes, Spinoza, and Darwin Strachan Donnelley 41

Chapter 4:

Cutting Nature at the Seams: Beyond Species Boundaries in a World of Diversity Jon Jensen

Chapter 5:Respect for Experience as a Way into the Problem of Moral Boundaries Charles S. Brown Chapter 6:Boundarylessness: Introducing a Systems Heuristic for Conceptualizing Complexity Beth Dempster Part II: Community, Values, and Sustainability Chapter 7:Boundaries on the Edge Irene J. Klaver

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61

83

9

3

113

vi 

Chapter 8:

Chapter 9:

Chapter 10:

Chapter 11:

Contents

Remapping Land Use: Remote Sensing, Institutional Approaches, and Landscape Boundaries Firooza Pavri

Boundaries, Communities, and Politics Anna L. Peterson

The Moral Economy and Politics of Water in the Arid American West T. Clay Arnold

The Need for a Taxonomy of Boundaries Wes Jackson and Jerry Glover

Chapter 12:How to do Things with Food: A Plea for Multiple Ontologies Bruce Hirsch Chapter 13:Culture and Cultivation: Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Agriculture Ted Toadvine Notes on Contributors

Index

133

145

161

177

195

207 223

227

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Acknowledgments

he chapters in this book were originally written for a conference in Matfield Green, Kansas, which was hosted by The Land Institute and Jac T kson, the staff at the Land Institute, and the townsfolk of Matfield Green Emporia State University. We owe a great deal of appreciation to Wes for all their generosity and hospitality during the conference. We appreciate and fondly remember undergraduates Matt Lexow, Taylor Hammer, and Nathan Hall who provided logistic support for this meeting. We thank the Social Sciences Department at Emporia State University for its encourage- ment and moral support. We especially thank Jacque Fehr for her editorial assistance, typing, and sound judgment in the preparation of this text. Our thanks go to Dianne Brown for the artwork on the cover. We are greatly indebted to the contributors whose willingness to revise their chapters to meet the needs of this volume has greatly facilitated this project. We also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers whose efforts have made this text better. Lastly, it has been a delight to work with Jane Bunker of the State University of New York Press whose encouragement and support of this pro- ject are greatly appreciated.

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An Introduction to the Problem of Boundaries in Ecological Theory and Practice

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Charles S. Brown

ivisions, boundaries, thresholds, and limits structure our lives, our concerns, and the world around us. Some of these boundaries are D natural divisions: the shell of an egg, our own skin, or the ecotone where the forest ends and the prairie begins. Other boundaries arise from our actions and evaluations, from our investment of concern in some things rather than others. Along with the structures and boundaries of the natural world, the divisions of time and place, self and other, and of good and evil form the context of our actions, our decisions, and our lives. Although all disciplines of human knowledge and practice—and, arguably, all living things—draw and maintain boundaries, no discipline has yet developed that studies the nature of boundaries themselves. What is a boundary? What cir- cumstances and context allow boundaries to form, to be put into play, to be defined, and to be maintained? What different types of boundaries should be distinguished, and how are they similar or different? According to what crite- ria might boundaries be evaluated and perhaps redrawn? Of the many questions related to boundaries, two confront environmen- tal activists and theoreticians more directly than the rest: (1) how do bound- aries originate and function, especially the boundary between humans and nature, and (2) what is the role of boundaries in establishing a common framework for theory and practice? Attempts to deal constructively with these issues often suffer from a limiting disciplinary approach. By defining our problems as either economic or biological, political or philosophical, we reproduce the structure of the academy, but fail to appreciate the kind of essential interconnections that ecological thinking in particular has empha- sized. Real, sustainable solutions to our environmental problems are far more likely to emerge from a truly interdisciplinary approach to core issues, one that remains true to the complex nature of the problems themselves.

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