Environmental Values: An Appreciation

摘要

Perhaps fittingly, the professional career of Alan Holland - let us all hope his intellectual career will continue for years to come - is coming to a close with the publication of a co-authored book that may well be heralded as a new beginning for environmental philosophy. I am predicting that the recently published Environment Values will contribute greatly to the transition from the earliest stage - the meta-ethical stage - to a new era, one that will emphasise procedure and good decision processes, rather than abstract meta-ethical reasoning from definitive decision criterion resting upon radically new metaphysical 'foundations' in bio- or eco-centrisms. It may be premature to predict the exact intellectual terrain of the incipient era in environmental philosophy.