The Worldview Concept and Aldo Leopold’s Project of ‘World View’ Remediation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v5i4.509Keywords:
Aldo Leopold, Axiology, ecology, epistemology, evolution, Kant, WhiteAbstract
A Sand County Almanac has a single overarching theme and purpose—worldview remediation: to replace the biblical with an evolutionary-ecological worldview. The epistemological foundations of the worldview concept were established by Kant, who rendered ‘reality’ phenomenal and potentially plural. No worldview is true, but competing worldviews may be adjudicated by the application of three criteria of tenability: (1) self-consistency; (2) consistency with and comprehensive of all phenomenal experience; (3) aesthetical and spiritual satisfaction. A Sand County Almanac’s ‘Marshland Elegy’ and ‘On a Monument to the Pigeon’ explore the aesthetic and spiritual potentiality of the theory of evolution. ‘Odyssey’, ‘Thinking Like a Mountain’, and ‘Song of the Gavilan’ explore the aesthetic and spiritual potentiality of ecology. ‘The Land Ethic’ explores the axiological and normative implication of the evolutionary-ecological worldview. Subsequent changes in ecology problematize the summary moral maxim of ‘The Land Ethic’. Worldview remediation is now more challenging, but also more necessary than ever.References
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Callicott, John B. 1994. Earth’s Insights: A Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback (Berkeley: University of California Press).
———. 1999. Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Clements, Frederic E. 1905. Research Methods in Ecology (Lincoln, NE: University Publishing Co.).
———. 1916. Plant Succession: The Analysis of the Development of Vegetation (Publication no. 242; Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution).
Curtis, John T. 1959. The Vegetation of Wisconsin (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).
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Dobzhansky, Theodosius. 1963. ‘Anthropology and the Natural Sciences—the Problem of Human Evolution’, Current Anthropology 4: 138, 146-48. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/200354.
Douglas, Ian, David Goode, Mike Houk, and Rusong Wang. 2011. The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology (New York: Routledge).
Elton, Charles. 1927. Animal Ecology (London: Sidgwick & Jackson).
Gleason, Henry A. 1926. ‘The Individualistic Concept of the Plant Association’, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 53: 1-20. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2479933.
Jenkins, Willis. 2009. ‘After Lynn White: Religious Ethics and Environmental Problems’, Journal of Religious Ethics 37: 237-309. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9795.2009.00387.x.
Kant, Immanuel. 2007. Critique of Pure Reason (trans. N.K. Smith; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edn).
Kuehn, Manfred. 2001. Kant: A Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Kuhn, Thomas. 1957. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Leopold, Aldo. 1939. ‘A Biotic View of Land’, Journal of Forestry 37: 727-30.
———. 1949. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (New York: Oxford University Press).
———. 1991a. ‘Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest’, in Leopold 1991d: 86-97. (Originally written in 1923 and eventually published in Environmental Ethics 1 [1979]: 131-41.)
———. 1991b. ‘The Conservation Ethic’, in Leopold 1991d: 181-93. (Originally published in the Journal of Forestry 31 [1933]: 634-43.)
———. 1991c. ‘The Arboretum and the University’, in Leopold 1991d: 209-11. (Originally published in Parks and Recreation18.2 [1934]: 59-60.)
———. 1991d. The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold (ed. S.L. Flader and J.B. Callicott; Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).
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White, Lynn. 1967. ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’, Science 155: 1203-207. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.155.3767.1203.
Whittaker, Robert H. 1951. ‘A Criticism of the Plant Association and Climatic Climax Concepts’, Northwest Science 25: 18-31.
———. 1967. ‘Gradient Analysis of Vegetation’, Biological Review 28: 207-64. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-185X.1967.tb01419.x.
Worster, Donald. 1977. Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Bedicheck, Roy. 1947. Adventures of a Texas Naturalist (Austin: University of Texas Press).
Black, Max. 1964. ‘The Gap between “Is” and “Should”’, Philosophical Review 73: 165-81. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2183334.
Callicott, John B. 1994. Earth’s Insights: A Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback (Berkeley: University of California Press).
———. 1999. Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Clements, Frederic E. 1905. Research Methods in Ecology (Lincoln, NE: University Publishing Co.).
———. 1916. Plant Succession: The Analysis of the Development of Vegetation (Publication no. 242; Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution).
Curtis, John T. 1959. The Vegetation of Wisconsin (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).
Darwin, Charles R. 1874. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (London: John Murray, 2nd edn).
Dobzhansky, Theodosius. 1963. ‘Anthropology and the Natural Sciences—the Problem of Human Evolution’, Current Anthropology 4: 138, 146-48. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/200354.
Douglas, Ian, David Goode, Mike Houk, and Rusong Wang. 2011. The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology (New York: Routledge).
Elton, Charles. 1927. Animal Ecology (London: Sidgwick & Jackson).
Gleason, Henry A. 1926. ‘The Individualistic Concept of the Plant Association’, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 53: 1-20. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2479933.
Jenkins, Willis. 2009. ‘After Lynn White: Religious Ethics and Environmental Problems’, Journal of Religious Ethics 37: 237-309. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9795.2009.00387.x.
Kant, Immanuel. 2007. Critique of Pure Reason (trans. N.K. Smith; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edn).
Kuehn, Manfred. 2001. Kant: A Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Kuhn, Thomas. 1957. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Leopold, Aldo. 1939. ‘A Biotic View of Land’, Journal of Forestry 37: 727-30.
———. 1949. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (New York: Oxford University Press).
———. 1991a. ‘Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest’, in Leopold 1991d: 86-97. (Originally written in 1923 and eventually published in Environmental Ethics 1 [1979]: 131-41.)
———. 1991b. ‘The Conservation Ethic’, in Leopold 1991d: 181-93. (Originally published in the Journal of Forestry 31 [1933]: 634-43.)
———. 1991c. ‘The Arboretum and the University’, in Leopold 1991d: 209-11. (Originally published in Parks and Recreation18.2 [1934]: 59-60.)
———. 1991d. The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold (ed. S.L. Flader and J.B. Callicott; Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).
Lindeman, Raymond L. 1942. ‘The Trophic-dynamic Aspect of Ecology’, Ecology 23: 399-418. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1930126.
McIntosh, Robert P. 1967. ‘The Continuum Concept of Vegetation’, Botanical Review 33: 130-87. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02858667.
———. 1975. ‘H.A. Gleason, “Individualistic Ecologist”, 1882–1975’, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 102: 253-73. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2484142.
Meine, Curt. 1988. Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).
Odum, Eugene P. 1969. ‘The Strategy of Ecosystem Development’, Science 164: 260-70. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.164.3877.262.
O’Neill, Robert V., Donald L. DeAngelis, J.B. Waide, and Thomas F.H. Allen. 1986. A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Pickett, Steward T.A., and Richard S. Ostfeld. 1995. ‘The Shifting Paradigm in Ecology’, in R.L. Knight and S.F. Bates (eds.), A New Century for Natural Resources Management (Washington, DC: Island Press).
Pickett, Steward T.A., and Peter S. White. 1985. The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics (Orlando, FL: Academic Press).
Rozzi, Ricardo, Francisca Massardo, Christopher B. Anderson, Kurt Heidinger, and John A. Silander. 2006. ‘Ten Principles for Biocultural Conservation at the Southern Tip of the Americas’, Ecology and Society 11: 1-43.
Tallmadge, John. 1987. ‘Anatomy of a Classic’, in J. Baird Callicott (ed.), Companion to A Sand County Almanac: Interpretive and Critical Essays (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press): 110-27.
Tansley, Arthur G. 1935. ‘The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms’, Ecology 16: 284-341. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1930070.
Thoreau, Henry D. 1854. Walden or Life in the Woods (Boston: Ticknor & Fields).
Vogt, William. 1948. Road to Survival (New York: William Sloan Associates).
White, Lynn. 1967. ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’, Science 155: 1203-207. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.155.3767.1203.
Whittaker, Robert H. 1951. ‘A Criticism of the Plant Association and Climatic Climax Concepts’, Northwest Science 25: 18-31.
———. 1967. ‘Gradient Analysis of Vegetation’, Biological Review 28: 207-64. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-185X.1967.tb01419.x.
Worster, Donald. 1977. Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Published
2011-12-28
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Callicott, J. B. (2011). The Worldview Concept and Aldo Leopold’s Project of ‘World View’ Remediation. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 5(4), 509-528. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v5i4.509
