Value, Beauty, and Nature

Brian G. Henning is Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies and Founding Director of the Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment at Gonzaga University. He is the author of many books, including The Ethics of Creativity: Beauty, Morality, and Nature in a Processive Cosmos.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. In Defense of Systematic, Speculative Philosophy2. Value3. Whitehead, Callicott, and Rolston4. Beauty5. Hierarchy6. Individuals7. Teleology and the Naturalistic Fallacy8. Environmental Pragmatism9. From the Anthropocene to the EcozoicNotesBibliographyIndex

"Value, Beauty, and Nature also does an important service to all of us in the larger world of green thought by giving some structure to the notion of 'intrinsic value,' which as a metaphysical concept often gets used in ways that are far too hazy." — H-Net Reviews (H-Environment)"Value, Beauty, and Nature provides in one volume a clear and concise introduction to both process metaphysics and process environmental ethics and the connection between the two. Henning makes a strong case for the need to bring metaphysical concepts to bear on issues in environmental philosophy in that ecoholism and related positions are already implicitly metaphysical. He shows the problems involved if metaphysical generality is either ignored altogether or left implicit in environmental ethics, and also makes a strong case for process metaphysics, in particular. In many ways, process thinkers, as Henning shows, led the way in the early days of environmental ethics, yet their views have not yet received the attention they deserve." — Daniel Dombrowski, author of Process Mysticism