A Critique of Environmental Holism

Abstract

Abstract Both environmental philosophers and activists commonly claim that we face an “ecological crisis” that will not be solved unless and until a holistic environmental ethic takes hold of our psyches. The search for such an ethic commonly is traced to ecologist Aldo Leopold, who has been called the “patron saint” of environmental ethics. Leopold defined morally right actions as those that “tend to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.” He stressed that “land ethic ... implies respect for [one’s] fellow members [of the biotic community], and also respect for the community as such.” And he characterized such a land ethic as both “an evolutionary possibility and an ecological necessity” (1949, pp. 224-25, 204, 203).