Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works

by David Schmidtz, Elizabeth Willott

Extensively revised and expanded in this second edition, Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works examines morality from an environmental perspective. Featuring seventy-one accessible selections--from classic articles to examples of cutting-edge original research--it addresses both theory and practice. Asking what really matters, the first section of the book explores the abstract ideas of human value and value in nature. The second section turns to the question of what it would take to solve our real-world environmental problems. Moving beyond the "hype," it presents authoritative essays on applying environmental ethics to the issues that matter right now. The book is enhanced by chapter introductions ("Questions for Reflection and Discussion") that offer brief summaries and questions for further analysis and class discussion.
Ideal for undergraduate courses in environmental ethics, environmental philosophy, and environmental studies, Environmental Ethics, Second Edition, is also a helpful resource for graduate students and professors.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Environment

688 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

David Schmidtz is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is Presidential Chair of Moral Science at West Virginia University's Chambers College of Business and Economics. He is also editor-in-chief of the journal Social Philosophy & Policy. Previously, he was Kendrick Professor of Philosophy and Eller Chair of Service-Dominant Logic at the University of Arizona. While at Arizona, he founded and served as inaugural head of the Department of Political Economy and Moral Science.

Reviews

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a career and academic focus in the environmental sector.. I did not find this textbook inspiring at all, and if you are considering choosing this for a class please take into account that it is not very engaging. If you are going to use it to teach please incorporate relevant figures, cases, and real life applications. The book wraps things up with a section called "Taking Action" that discussed the discourse on Environmental Ethics as a field, perpetuating the problems it in itself is creating. It's self aware... Does that make it better? No. I was excited about Environmental Ethics before this book. Not anymore.

[Elizabeth Vilchis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good for a required reading. Didn’t like the way it was organized, but that doesn’t take too much away from the material.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent textbook for Environmental Ethics. It covers all the most important terrain, and on most subjects it provides readings that help students become acquainted with the issues and that provoke interesting discussion. The material covering deep ecology is unfortunately not very good, but this is in part due to the philosophical poverty of thought marking its main exponents in America, George Sessions and Bill Devall. More by Arne Naess would have helped on this, but any professor can easily find supplemental readings and provide them to the class. Overall I found it a very good text.