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From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, November 20, 1998 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: Peter Singer - An Interview
>Since Aldo Leopold was one of the first to articulate the concept of "land
>ethics", a forerunner of other branches of environmental ethics, what do
you
>think he would say about the scope of evolutionary ethics today?
Really interesting question. Although Leopold used the term "evolution" in
reference to ethical systems several times in "Sand County...," he seemed to
be referring to historical evolution, not biological evolution. i.e. "The
evolution of a land ethic is an intellectual as well as emotional process.
Conservation is paved with good intentions which prove futile, or even
dangerous, becasuse they are devoid of critical understanding either of the
land, or of economic land-use. I think it is a truism that as the ethical
frontier advances from the individual to the community, its intellectual
content increases." (pg 225).
I'm sure Leopold was aware of the debate over this issue between Kropotkin
and Huxley, but I've never seen any reference to it in his writing. He
obviously was concerned with the development of an ecological/evolutionary
ethic, but whether or not he would have accepted the evolution of morality
as a biological concept as well as a socio-cultural concept is up for
conjecture, but useful conjecture I think.
Steven J. Bissell
http://www.du.edu/~sbissell
http://www.responsivemanagement.com
Our human ecology is that of a rare species of mammal
in a social, omnivorous niche. Our demography is one of
a slow-breeding, large, intelligent primate.
To shatter our population structure, to become abundant
in the way of rodents, not only destroys our ecological
relations with the rest of nature, it sets the stage
for our mass insanity.
Paul Shepard
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