Attitudes to Wildlife in the History of Ideas

Abstract

Recently I had the good fortune to read Eugene C. Hargrove's ingenious and original book Foundations of Environmental Ethics.' One concern of the current essay is to convey some of the intellectual richness of this thought-provoking work.2 This I mean to do by introducing some of Hargrove's key themes about the history of ideas in the Western tradition with relation to attitudes to wildlife. My other purpose is to challenge and criticize some of his conclusions; in particular his conclusions conceming the crucial support which aesthetic traditions in the history of ideas supposedly supply for modern environmentalist attitudes, and concerning the lack of support which historical traditions supposedly have to offer to animal rights and animal welfare positions. Hargrove3 sets off by exhibiting how Western philosophical traditions have impeded and sometimes prevented the development of preservationist attitudes in the cultures which they have influenced.4 Further links between the philosophical tradition and modern