Environmental Aesthetics & Ethics: At the Intersection

More and more people today are concerned about the impact humans have on the natural environment. Therefore, of increasing philosophical concern is the question, what grounds our responsibility to protect the natural world, especially the non-sentient parts of it? A number of philosophers have suggested that we should justify protecting the environment partly for aesthetic reasons.

            There have been several recent attempts to provide a theory of environmental aesthetics. Yet most of the attention in environmental aesthetics has been focused on whether the theories on offer are good accounts of our aesthetic experiences of nature. What has remained in the background is whether environmental aesthetic theories can ground, provide reasons for, or even justify protecting the environment.

            We aim to foreground the relation between environmental aesthetics and environmental protection. Bringing together an array of international scholars, we will discuss why, if at all, we have a responsibility to protect non-sentient parts of the natural environment. Are such responsibilities best justified on aesthetic or moral grounds, or some combination of the two? This conference is open to the public. Registration is free but required. Visit http://enviroethics.indiana.edu/ for further information.