Philosophy of Ecology

by Dov M. Gabbay, Paul Thagard, John Woods, Bryson Brown, Kevin de Laplante

Overview

The most pressing problems facing humanity today — over-population, energy shortages, climate change, soil erosion, species extinctions, the risk of epidemic disease, the threat of warfare that could destroy all the hard-won gains of civilization, and even the recent fibrillations of the stock market — are all ecological or have a large ecological component. in this volume philosophers turn their attention to understanding the science of ecology and its huge implications for the human project. To get the application of ecology to policy or other practical concerns right, humanity needs a clear and disinterested philosophical understanding of ecology which can help identify the practical lessons of science. Conversely, the urgent practical demands humanity faces today cannot help but direct scientific and philosophical investigation toward the basis of those ecological challenges that threaten human survival. This book will help to fuel the timely renaissance of interest in philosophy of ecology that is now occurring in the philosophical profession.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780444516732
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	06/16/2011
Series:	Handbook of the Philosophy of Science , #11
Pages:	444
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dov M. Gabbay is Augustus De Morgan Professor Emeritus of Logic at the Group of Logic, Language and Computation, Department of Computer Science, King's College London. He has authored over four hundred and fifty research papers and over thirty research monographs. He is editor of several international Journals, and many reference works and Handbooks of Logic.

Table of Contents

Philosophy of Ecology Today
Origins and Development of Ecology
The Legend of Order and Chaos: Communities and Early Community Ecology
Philosophical Themes in the Work of Robert MacArthur
Embodied Realism and Invasive Species
A Case Study in Concept Determination: Ecological Diversity
The Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Debate in Ecology
A Dynamical Approach to Ecosystem Identity
Symbiosis in Ecology and Evolution
Ecology as Historical Science
Environmental Ethics and Decision Theory: Fellow Travellers or Bitter Enemies?
Postmodern Ecological Restoration: Choosing Appropriate Temporal and Spatial Scales
Habitat Reconstruction: Moving Beyond Historical Fidelity
Modeling Sustainability in Economics and Ecology
Diversity and the Good

Editorial Reviews

"…whereas much prior philosophizing about ecology has been either environmental fluff or the academic rationalization of predetermined and platitudinous endpoints (e.g., wanton destruction of nature is unethical), there appears now to be the real possibility of a philosophy of ecology." (reprinted from The Quarterly Review of Biology, June 2012)—BookInspections.com, May 26, 2013

"The present volume brings together in one place the recent works of many thinkers, including those such as Jay Odenbaugh and Gregory Mikkelson, professional philosophers who have made understanding and interpreting ecology their primary focus (and not just ecology in general, but specific problems in ecological theory). Thus, whereas much prior philosophizing about ecology has been either environmental fluff or the academic rationalization of predetermined and platitudinous endpoints (e.g., wanton destruction of nature is unethical), there appears now to be the real possibility of a philosophy of ecology…. [T]the essays by Christopher Eliot (The Legend of Order and Chaos: Communities and Early Community Ecology), James Justus (A Case Study in Concept Determination: Ecological Diversity), and Sahotra Sarkar (Habitat Reconstruction: Moving Beyond Historical Fidelity) are landmarks in the clarification of the philosophical problems that are throughout ecology."—The Quarterly Review of Biology, June 2012, page 141-2

From the Publisher