The Natural and the Artefactual: The Implications of Deep Science and Deep Technology for Environmental Philosophy - Hardcover

Lee, Keekok

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0739100610 ISBN 13: 9780739100615

Publisher: Lexington Books, 1999

Synopsis

In this book, philosopher Keekok Lee challenges one of the central assumptions of contemporary environmentalism: that if we could reduce or eliminate pollution we could 'save' the planet without unduly disrupting our modern, industrialized societies. Lee argues instead that the process of modernization, with its attendant emphasis on technological innovation, has fundamentally transformed 'nature' into just another manmade 'artefact.' Ultimately, what needs to be determined is if nature has value above and beyond human considerations, whether aesthetic, spiritual, or biological. This provocative book attempts to reconfigure environmental ethics, positing the existence of two separate ontological categories―the 'natural' and the 'artefactual.' Natural entities, be they organisms or inert matter, are 'morally considerable' because they possess the ontological value of independence, whereas artefacts are created by humans expressly to serve their own interests and ends.

About this title

About the Author:

Keekok Lee is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Manchester, where she was also Director of the Centre for Philosophy and the Environment.

Review:

Lee has undoubtedly contributed to the ongoing philosophical discussion about the relation between the axiological and the ontological status of nature. (Environmental Values)

This is an impressive book... there is much of value here. (Environmental Ethics)

Philosophically wide-ranging and scholarly, this book maintains that environmental philosophy must begin with ontology rather than axiology and expand its concerns to include abiotic nature....Interesting for its attempt to keep humans and the nonhuman connected while acknowledging differences. (CHOICE)

About this edition

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0739100610
• ISBN 13: 9780739100615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288