Nature in Common?

Ben A. Minteer is Assistant Professor of Environmental Ethics and Policy in the School of Life Sciences and affiliated Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Arizona State University.  He is author of The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America.

• AcknowledgmentsPART I Introduction 1. Unity among Environmentalists? Debating the Values-Policy Link in Environmental EthicsPART II The Convergence Hypothesis Debate in Environmental Ethics: The First Wave 2. Contextualism and Norton’s Convergence Hypothesis 3. Convergence and Contextualism: Some Clarifications and a Reply to Steverson 4. Why Norton’s Approach Is Insufficient for Environmental Ethics 5. Convergence in Environmental Values: An Empirical and Conceptual Defense 6. The Relevance of Environmental Ethical Theories for Policy MakingPART III Expanding the Discussion: The Convergence Hypothesis Debate Today 7. Converging versus Reconstituting Environmental Ethics 8. Environmental Ethics and Future Generations 9. The Convergence Hypothesis Falsified: Implicit Intrinsic Value, Operational Rights, and De Facto Standing in the Endangered Species Act 10. Convergence in an Agrarian Key 11. Convergence and Ecological Restoration: A Counterexample 12. Does a Public Environmental Philosophy Need a Convergence Hypothesis? 13. The Importance of Creating an Applied Environmental Ethics: Lessons Learned from Climate Change 14. Who Is Converging with Whom? An Open Letter to Professor Bryan Norton from a Policy WonkPART IV Reply by Bryan G. Norton 15. Convergence and Divergence: The Convergence Hypothesis Twenty Years LaterContributors Notes Index

“Nature in Common?  brings together leading environmental philosophers to sharpen and clarify the divisions and critically examine the strengths and limits of moving environmentalists toward an agenda with which most can agree. This is an important and unique collection of essays. Minteer’s introductory framing is excellent, and each of the chapters, are clear and forceful. This volume is a major contribution and deserves to be read widely. “-Jan Dizard, Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of American Culture and the Pick Professor of Environmental Studies, Amherst College