Distributing Epistemic Authority: Refining Norton’s Pragmatist Approach to Environmental Decision-Making

Abstract

Environmental pragmatists are committed to analyzing questions of environmental policy. Bryan Norton's pragmatic critique of environmental decision-making shows how an implicit commitment to the fact/value distinction has hindered productive environmental action. Nonetheless, Norton, as well as the majority of environmental ethicists, have devoted more attention to theorizing value disagreements as a primary cause of controversy than to examining epistemic structures. A case study demonstrates why and how Norton's procedural account may be supplemented with sensitive attention to the construction of epistemic authority in environmental disputes. I recommend supporting the development of local knowledges and just distributions of epistemic authority.1. Pragmatism and Environmental Policy-MakingPragmatist environmental philosophers have made noteworthy contributions to persistent philosophical problems in environmental ethics, such as the source of value in nature, the nature of our moral obligations to the environment and to living creatures, and the objectivity of environmental value. But pragmatists have an additional interest beyond these ethical and ontological questions - they believe that philosophers can help make ideas clear in order to improve policy and action. To this end, pragmatists have contributed to debates in agricultural biotechnology (Thompson 2003), ecological restoration (Light 2000), water policy (Thompson 1996), and livestock production (McKenna 2004).In doing so, pragmatist environmental philosophers are following the lead of earlier pragmatists such as John Dewey who recognized that pragmatism can and ought to have real-life practical consequences and should not be limited to debates of a merely academic or scholastic nature. From this standpoint, contemporary pragmatists can contribute to the resolution of environmental problems by examining the process of inquiry and by evaluating procedures for political participation. Thus, pragmatists are well positioned to expand environmental philosophy beyond its current focus on ethics. A broader scope for environmental philosophy ought to include both an epistemological examination of what is known about natural environments and the application of social and political theory to evaluate and improve environmental decisionmaking. Such pragmatist contributions will:a. avoid, disintegrate, demystify, and disarm confusing metaphysical disputes,b. investigate how epistemic practices operate to resolve or, on the other hand, to amplify environmental problems,c. search for practical solutions to environmental controversies that are acceptable to all parties, andd. encourage participants in inquiry to be open to social learning and change.2. Bryan Norton's Pragmatic ProceduralismA good example of this is Bryan Norton wide-ranging account of public environmental decision-making in his recent book Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management (2005). Drawing on Deweyan pragmatism, he develops a procedural framework for reaching democratic resolutions to environmental problems. Norton believes that one of the largest obstacles to resolving environmental controversies and to implementing solutions to environmental problems is that people fail to communicate. The role of the philosopher here is twofold: first, to outline and justify general procedures for inquiry and action; and second, to help the parties to disputes make their goals clear as they work toward mutually acceptable (in the ideal case, win-win) solutions.Both of these philosophical goals have Deweyan roots - in other words, Norton has contextualized Deweyan inquiry for the environmental policy arena. To this end, Norton proposes that participants in environmental problem solving pick what he calls indicators. An indicator is a measurable quantity that is tied to an environmental goal. Importantly, Norton holds that the ideological basis for the goal is not directly relevant. …