Earth's Insights: A Multicultural Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback

By J. Baird Callicott

Book Overview

The environmental crisis is global in scope, yet contemporary environmental ethics is centered predominantly in Western philosophy and religion. Earth's Insights widens the scope of environmental ethics to include the ecological teachings embedded in non-Western worldviews. J. Baird Callicott ranges broadly, exploring the sacred texts of Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism, as well as the oral traditions of Polynesia, North and South America, and Australia. He also documents the attempts of various peoples to put their environmental ethics into practice. Finally, he wrestles with a question of vital importance to all people sharing the fate of this small planet: How can the world's many and diverse environmental philosophies be brought together in a complementary and consistent whole?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520085604
• ISBN13: 9780520085602
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

It's About Ethics and What We Do to the Land

I'm thrilled to find this paperback. Calicott tries to answer the ethical questions which have been ignored by all converts to the New Individualism.. The author is a philosopher and an excellent academic writer. It took me a while to get used to him. Since 1994 this work has been a guide for writers who deal with the ethics of land use. In the U.S. we perceive the land as a commodity. Calicott surveys the ecological ethics of many cultures, now overwhelmed by Euroculture. He starts in the Mediterranean Basin with the historical roots of our environmental attitudes and values. Then he covers the rest of the earth including those of the original settlers of the Western Hemisphere. But he also details "A Postmodern Evolutionary Ecological Environmental Ethic"and contrasts it with our traditional environmental actions. He admires the work of Hindu environmentalists as well as Buddists in Sri Lanka and Thailand. Where else can we learn about this?