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Books by Brian G. Henning

Much of early environmental ethics was born out of the belief that the ecological crisis can only... more Much of early environmental ethics was born out of the belief that the ecological crisis can only truly be solved by overcoming a pernicious worldview that limits all intrinsic value to human beings. Returning to this originating impulse, Value, Beauty, and Nature contends that, to make progress within environmental ethics, philosophers must explicitly engage in environmental metaphysics. Grounded in an organicist process worldview, Brian G. Henning shows that it is possible to make progress in key debates within environmental philosophy, including those concerning the nature of intrinsic value; anthropocentrism; hierarchy; the moral significance of beauty; the nature of individuality; teleology and the naturalistic fallacy; and worldview reconstruction. A Whiteheadian fallibilistic, naturalistic, event ontology allows for the recovery of systematic, speculative metaphysical thought without a revanchist movement toward a necessitarian philosophia perennis. Thus, in contrast to the claims of environmental pragmatists, Value, Beauty, and Nature demonstrates that environmental ethics would greatly benefit from an adequate metaphysical foundation and, of the candidate metaphysical systems, Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy of organism is the most adequate.

Climate Change Ethics and the Non-Human World, 2020

This book examines from different perspectives the moral significance of non-human members of the... more This book examines from different perspectives the moral significance of non-human members of the biotic community and their omission from climate ethics literature.

The complexity of life in an age of rapid climate change demands the development of moral frameworks that recognize and respect the dignity and agency of both human and non-human organisms. Despite decades of careful work in non-anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics, recent anthologies on climate ethics have largely omitted non-anthropocentric approaches. This multidisciplinary volume of international scholars tackles this lacuna by presenting novel work on non-anthropocentric approaches to climate ethics. Written in an accessible style, the text incorporates sentiocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric perspectives on climate change.

With diverse perspectives from both leading and emerging scholars of environmental ethics, geography, religious studies, conservation ecology, and environmental studies, this book will offer a valuable reading for students and scholars of these fields.

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925, 2020

Edited by Henning and Petek Examines the significance of The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whi... more Edited by Henning and Petek
Examines the significance of The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1924–1925
Responds to the question of whether the Harvard Lectures and The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead project change our understanding of the meaning or development of Whitehead’s thought
Written by international experts on Whitehead – including Maria-Teresa Teixeira, Gary Herstein and Jude Jones – who address a range of different aspects of the scholarly implications of the Lectures
The first monograph responding to the Critical Edition: has the potential to establish the tone and influence the direction of subsequent work
Includes the text of Whitehead’s first lecture at Harvard, recently gifted to the Critical Edition
Contributes towards setting scholarly conventions for how to cite and reference the volumes of the Critical Edition
In these newly commissioned essays, leading Whitehead scholars ask a range of important questions about Whitehead’s first year of philosophy lectures. Do these lectures challenge or confirm previous understandings of Whitehead’s published works? What is revealed about the development of Whitehead’s thought in the crucial period after London but before the publication of Science and the Modern World? What should we make of concepts and terms that were introduced in these lectures but were never incorporated into subsequent publications?

Also included in this volume is the text of Whitehead’s first lecture at Harvard, recently gifted to the Critical Edition of Whitehead, allowing for a clearer understanding of Whitehead’s plans and goals for his first course of lectures in philosophy than has previously been possible.

Being In America: Sixty Years of the Metaphysical Society

Abstract: "On April 15, 1950 at Yale University, Paul Weiss called to order the first meeting of... more Abstract:

"On April 15, 1950 at Yale University, Paul Weiss called to order the first meeting of the Metaphysical Society of America. Six decades on, it is easy to forget just how dramatic, even controversial this bald, unapologetic defense of metaphysics would have been in 1950. In the opening decades of the twentieth century, two competing philosophical projects each declared war on metaphysics. One line of attack came from Martin Heidegger (and later “post-modern” philosophers), who triumphantly declared the “end of metaphysics.” The second was waged by logical positivists (and later “ordinary language analysts”), who derided metaphysics as linguistic nonsense. These two competing trends within philosophy, “post-modernism” and “logical positivism,” combined to create an often-hostile environment for metaphysicians.

Although the philosophical heirs to post-modernism and positivism continue to occupy and closely guard much of the philosophical terrain, the fact that metaphysics is now a respected and even central part of philosophy in America today is itself a testament to the success of the Society and the vision and courage of its founders. As revealed by the Presidents of the Society through their Addresses, this volume explores the role and significance of the Metaphysical Society of America in the trajectory of philosophy in America over the last six decades (1950-2010).

This volume includes some of the best and most representative Presidential Addresses covering the nature of metaphysics, the question of knowledge, the question of language, and the question of the good."

Despite there being deep lines of convergence between the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead,... more Despite there being deep lines of convergence between the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead, C. S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and other classical American philosophers, it remains an open question whether Whitehead is a pragmatist, and conversation between pragmatists and Whitehead scholars have been limited. Indeed, it is difficult to find an anthology of classical American philosophy that includes Whitehead’s writings. These camps began separately, and so they remain. This volume questions the wisdom of that separation, exploring their connections, both historical and in application. The essays in this volume embody original and creative work by leading scholars that not only furthers the understanding of American philosophy, but seeks to advance it by working at the intersection of experience and reality to incite novel and creative thought. This exploration is long overdue. Specific questions that are addressed are: Is Whitehead a pragmatist? What contrasts and affinities exist between American pragmatism and Whitehead’s thought? What new questions, strategies, and critiques emerge by juxtaposing their distinct perspectives?

Global warming isn’t coming; it is already here. Human-induced global climate disruption is no l... more Global warming isn’t coming; it is already here. Human-induced global climate disruption is no longer a theoretical concern, neither is it an outcome that can be avoided if only the right policy is adopted or the right technology is invented. The oceans are rising and becoming more acidic, ice is melting, and droughts are becoming more prevalent. Determining how not only to survive, but live a good life in an age of climate change is the most pressing challenge facing humanity. The fate of the human community and many of the organisms with which we have evolved hang in the balance.

In Riders in the Storm professor of philosophy and environmental studies Brian G. Henning presents a clear and accessible introduction to why global warming is happening, why it is still debated in the popular media and in congress, and what the international community is doing to try to address it. He contends that the mainstream moral frameworks of “sustainability” and “stewardship” are welcome improvements over more destructive attitudes regarding humanity’s place in nature, but that they are ultimately insufficient. Encouraging a return to the roots of ethics, which for millennia has focused on examining the nature of the good life well lived, Riders in the Storm explores the “great work” of voluntary simplicity, wide sustainability, and humble self-stewardship. Equipped with colorful graphics and images, suggestions for further research and reading, and dialogue prompts, this text is a straightforward and engaging introduction to climate change.

It has been said that new discoveries and developments in the human, social, and natural sciences... more It has been said that new discoveries and developments in the human, social, and natural sciences hang “in the air” prior to their consummation. While neo-Darwinist biology has been powerfully served by its mechanistic metaphysic and a reductionist methodology in which living organisms are considered machines, many of the chapters in this volume place this paradigm into question. Pairing scientists and philosophers together, Beyond Mechanism: Putting Life Back into Biology explores what might be termed “the new frontiers” of biology, namely contemporary areas of research that invite an updating, a supplementation, or a relaxation of some of the main tenets of the modern synthesis. Such areas of investigation include: emergence theory, systems biology, biosemiotics, homeostasis, symbiogenesis, niche construction, the theory of organic selection (also known as “the Baldwin Effect”), self-organization, teleodynamics, and epigenetics. Most of the chapters in this book offer critical reflections on the neo-Darwinist outlook and work to promote a novel synthesis that is open to both a greater degree of inclusivity and a more holistic orientation in the biological sciences.

Being in America: Sixty Years of the Metaphysical Society

"On April 15, 1950 at Yale University, Paul Weiss called to order the first meeting of the Metaph... more "On April 15, 1950 at Yale University, Paul Weiss called to order the first meeting of the Metaphysical Society of America. Six decades on, it is easy to forget just how dramatic, even controversial this bald, unapologetic defense of metaphysics would have been in 1950. In the opening decades of the twentieth century, two competing philosophical projects each declared war on metaphysics. One line of attack came from Martin Heidegger (and later “post-modern” philosophers), who triumphantly declared the “end of metaphysics.” The second was waged by logical positivists (and later “ordinary language analysts”), who derided metaphysics as linguistic nonsense. These two competing trends within philosophy, “post-modernism” and “logical positivism,” combined to create an often-hostile environment for metaphysicians.

Each of the projected three volumes would cover twenty years of the Society’s sixty year history. Chronologically ordered, each chapter would contain a Presidential Address preceded by a brief biographical sketch and, if possible, a picture of the President."

Beyond Metaphysics? Explorations in Alfred North Whitehead's Late Thought

Alfred North Whitehead’s interpreters usually pay less attention to his later monographs and essa... more Alfred North Whitehead’s interpreters usually pay less attention to his later monographs and essays. Process and Reality is taken to be the definitive center of the Whiteheadian universe and the later works, thereby, appear to many only as applications or elaborations of themes already introduced earlier. Yet, is it also possible that the dominance of this perspective has obscured or even distorted further creative developments of Whitehead’s thought? This volume offers a sort of Copernican revolution in Whitehead interpretation, methodologically and conceptually inviting its contributors to observe Whitehead’s work from the perspective of his later works. The aim of this preferencing is meant not to invalidate earlier approaches to Whitehead’s thought nor is the inference that the later works are more authoritative. Yet, just as the first space-based images of our planet forever changed humanity’s understanding of its place in the universe, shifting the alleged center of, or even decentering of the view on, Whitehead’s “philosophy of organism” to the later works, we might discover previously obscured ideas or new vistas of thought relevant not only to our current philosophical landscape, but also to the pressing issues of our fragile and endangered world. This volume invites its contributors and readers to consider whether one thereby also moves beyond metaphysics?

Table of Contents
Introduction:
Roland Faber and Brian G. Henning: Whitehead’s Other Copernican Turn

Part 1 - Complexities of System, Life, and Novelty
Vincent Colapietro: Toward a Metaphysics of Expression
Christoph Kann: Renewing Speculation: The Systematic Aim of Whitehead’s Philosophic Cosmology
Dennis Soelch: Beyond Metaphysics?—A Historiographical Approach to Whitehead’s Speculative Philosophy
Deena Lin: Citing the Paradox: Probing the Systematization of Whitehead as Philosopher Subject
Clinton Combs: Before Metaphysics: Modes of Thought as a Prequel to Whitehead’s “Trilogy”
Roland Faber: Immanence and Incompleteness: Whitehead’s Late Metaphysics

Part 2 - Depths of Nature, Order, and Organicity
Robert J. Valenza: The Organism of Forms in Later Whitehead
Jeremy Dunham: Beyond Dogmatic Finality: Whitehead and the Laws of Nature
Joachim Klose: Alfred North Whitehead’s Receptacle
Helmut Maaßen: Contingency and Whitehead’s Metaphysics of Experience
Regine Kather: The Web of Life and the Constitution of Human Identity: Rethinking Nature as the Main Issue of Whitehead’s Late Metaphysics

Part 3 - Evocations of Value, Beauty, and Concern
Brian G. Henning: Re-Centering Process Thought: Recovering Beauty in A. N. Whitehead’s Late Work
Stascha Rohmer: The Self-Evidence of Civilization
Michael Halewood: Fact, Values, Individuals, and Others: Towards a Metaphysics of Value
Steven Shaviro: Self-enjoyment and Concern: On Whitehead and Levinas
Jude Jones: Provocative Expression: Transitions In and From Metaphysics in Whitehead’s Later Work
Isabella Palin: The Dream of Solomon

Genesis, Evolution, and the Search for a Reasoned Faith

Collaborators Mary Katherine Birge, Rodica Stoicoiu, Ryan Taylor, and Brian Henning explore in fo... more Collaborators Mary Katherine Birge, Rodica Stoicoiu, Ryan Taylor, and Brian Henning explore in four illuminating chapters the rich and complex history of the biblical creation accounts, the nature of science investigation, the ethical and philosophical significance of the theory of evolution, and the all-enveloping role of evolutionary theory in the deepening and broadening of faith. In the process, the authors expand readers’ understanding of the compatibility between religion and science. Readers will learn that they need not choose religion over science or faith over reason, and that evolution does not threaten but rather enriches faith.

Through more than 20 accessible and comprehensive case studies and examples, the authors make it clear to readers that regardless of what religious or non-religious background they come from—regardless of their religious knowledge and experiences—they can discover that science and religion are not enemies, but are companions in the search for truth. The fresh and fascinating Genesis, Evolution and the Search for a Reasoned Faith explores both the nature of science and religion and the intelligent and intimate conversation that is necessary in the search for truth.

The Ethics of Creativity: Beauty, Morality, and Nature in a Processive Cosmos

A central concern of nearly every environmental ethic is its desire to extend the scope of direct... more A central concern of nearly every environmental ethic is its desire to extend the scope of direct moral concern beyond human beings to plants, nonhuman animals, and the systems of which they are a part. Although nearly all environmental philosophies have long since rejected modernity's conception of individuals as isolated and independent substances, few have replaced this worldview with an alternative that is adequate to the organic, processive world in which we find ourselves. In this context, Brian G. Henning argues that the often overlooked work of Alfred North Whitehead has the potential to make a significant contribution to environmental ethics. Additionally inspired by classical American philosophers such as William James, John Dewey and Charles Sanders Pierce and environmental philosophers such as Aldo Leopold, Peter Singer, Albert Schweitzer, and Arne Naess, Henning develops an ethical theory of which the seminal insight is called "The Ethics of Creativity."

By systematically examining and developing a conception of individuality that is equally at home with the microscopic world of subatomic events and the macroscopic world of ecosystems, The Ethics of Creativity correctly emphasizes the well-being of wholes, while not losing sight of the importance of the unique centers of value that constitute these wholes. In this way, The Ethics of Creativity has the potential to be a unique voice in contemporary moral philosophy.

Papers by Brian G. Henning

The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1924-1925, 2017

, a British-born philosopher who attained widespread fame in America in the first half of the twe... more , a British-born philosopher who attained widespread fame in America in the first half of the twentieth century, is perhaps best known among the wider public for his famous saying that the European philosophical tradition 'consists of a series of footnotes to Plato'. 1 A student of mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the 1880s, Whitehead was elected a Fellow of the College in 1884, where he mentored the mathematical studies of such notable figures as John Maynard Keynes and Bertrand Russell, and was also inducted as a member of one of the most elite societies in the English-speaking university world at the time, the famed 'Cambridge Apostles'. In 1910, Whitehead resigned his fellowship at Trinity College and moved to London, where (after a year spent in research and writing) he obtained a lectureship in mathematics at University College London. In 1914, he began lecturing at the newly organised Imperial College of Science and Technology (now Imperial College London) before being elected Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of London in 1918 and Chairman of its Academic Council in 1920. 2 While at the University of London, Whitehead successfully lobbied for a new history of science department, helped establish a bachelor of science degree in 1923, and made the school more accessible to less wealthy students. Finally, at the age of 63, Whitehead retired from his position at the University of London and sailed to America to accept a coveted chair at Harvard University, becoming a naturalised citizen and remaining an active and prolific scholar until his death on 30 December 1947 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Whitehead began a collaboration with his student and protégé Lord Bertrand Russell that lasted well over a decade and resulted in the publication (in 1910, 1912 and 1913) of the three-volume Principia Mathematica, a monumental study intended to establish the foundations of mathematics in formal logic. Subsequently, in 1922, Whitehead himself concluded two decades of study of the geometry of space-time in The Principle of Relativity, a path-breaking work of theoretical cosmology explicitly intended to pose an alternative to Albert Einstein's

The destruction of a man, or of an insect, or of a tree, or of the Parthenon, may be moral or imm... more The destruction of a man, or of an insect, or of a tree, or of the Parthenon, may be moral or immoral. [...] Whether we destroy or whether we preserve, our action is moral if we have thereby safeguarded the importance of experience so far as it depends on that concrete instance in the world’s history. Morality is concerned with obtaining right relations. Currently, there is a battle being waged over which relations “count,” morally speaking. Traditionally, ethical theories have implied that the only relations that are morally significant are inter-human relations or those obtaining between human beings. Accordingly, human beings’ relations with organisms such as insects and trees or inanimate objects like the Parthenon are not moral relations at all; they do not count in this sphere. In contradistinction to this long-held conception of ethics, Alfred North Whitehead affirms a fundamentally different model of morality: whether one’s actions affect a human being, an insect, a tree, or...

Being in America, 2014

The fi nancial crisis that began in the summer of 2008 saw a rise in the unemployment rate from 4... more The fi nancial crisis that began in the summer of 2008 saw a rise in the unemployment rate from 4.8 percent in April 2008 to 10.6 percent at its peak in January 2010, a 4.4 percent drop in employee compensation over fi ve months in 2009 to 2010, large stimulus-associated tax credits and rebates, 4.7 percent of personal disposable income in May 2008 and 1.7 percent in May 2009, as well as a collapse and subsequent recovery of the stock market-the S&P 500 Index on March 6, 2009 had fallen to 40 percent of its all time high of October 2007 and then more than doubled again by end 2010. Through the fall in the market and the fall in the prices of housing and other assets, 60 percent of households saw their wealth decline between 2007 and 2009, and 25 percent lost more than half of their wealth (Bricker et al. 2011); these declines were widespread, affecting large shares of households

The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2015

My aim in this article is twofold. First, I hope to show that, despite its seeming rehabilitation... more My aim in this article is twofold. First, I hope to show that, despite its seeming rehabilitation, metaphysics as systematic, speculative philosophy is no less threatened. Second, I will argue that metaphysics as systematic, speculative philosophy is ultimately revisable. That is, metaphysics is not (or should not be) the aim at a closed system of apodictic truths but, rather, an open-ended, fallibilistic pursuit of ever-more-adequate accounts of reality. Specifically, building on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead, I will argue that we should conceive of metaphysics not as the quest for absolute certainty but as “working hypothesis.” Thus, the first part will be largely historical and critical, and the second part will be positive and exploratory.

Daedalus, 2015

As the collective impact of human activity approaches Earth's biophysical limits, the ethics ... more As the collective impact of human activity approaches Earth's biophysical limits, the ethics of food become increasingly important. Hundreds of millions of people remain undernourished, yet only 60 percent of the global harvest is consumed by humans, while 35 percent is fed to livestock and 5 percent is used for biofuels and other industrial products. This essay considers the ethics of such use of edible nutrition for feedstock and biofuel. How humanity uses Earth's land is a reflection of its values. The current land-use arrangements, which divert 40 percent of all food to feed animals or create fuels, suggest that dietary and transportation preferences of wealthier individuals are considered more important than feeding undernourished people, or the stability of the wider biotic community.

Beyond Metaphysics? Explorations in Alfred North Whitehead’s Late Thought

Process Studies, 2011

The Contemporary Whitehead Studies Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Roland Faber and Brian G... more The Contemporary Whitehead Studies Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Roland Faber and Brian G. Henning: Introduction: Whitehead's Other Copernican Turn Complexities of System, Life, and Novelty Vincent Colapietro: Toward a Metaphysics of Expression Christoph Kann: Renewing Speculation: The Systematic Aim of Whitehead's Philosophic Cosmology Dennis Soelch: Beyond Metaphysics?-A Historiographical Approach to Whitehead's Speculative Philosophy Deena Lin: Citing the Paradox: Probing the Systematization of Whitehead as Philosopher Subject Clinton Combs: Before Metaphysics: Modes of Thought as a Prequel to Whitehead's "Trilogy" Roland Faber: Immanence and Incompleteness: Whitehead's Late Metaphysics Depths of Nature, Order, and Organicity Robert J. Valenza: The Organism of Forms in Later Whitehead Jeremy Dunham: Beyond Dogmatic Finality: Whitehead and the Laws of Nature Joachim Klose: Alfred North Whitehead's Receptacle Helmut Maassen: Contingency and Whitehead's Metaphysics of Experience Regine Kather: The Web of Life and the Constitution of Human Identity: Rethinking Nature as the Main Issue of Whitehead's Late Metaphysics Evocations of Value, Beauty, and Concern Brian G. Henning: Re-Centering Process Thought: Recovering Beauty in A. N. Whitehead's Late Work Stascha Rohmer: The Self-Evidence of Civilization Michael Halewood: Fact, Values, Individuals, and Others: Towards a Metaphysics of Value Steven Shaviro: Self-enjoyment and Concern: On Whitehead and Levinas Jude Jones: Provocative Expression: Transitions In and From Metaphysics in Whitehead's Later Work Isabella Palin: The Dream of Solomon Works Cited About the Authors Index

Ethics and the Environment, 2011

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925, 2020

Climate Change Ethics and the Non-Human World, 2020

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925, 2020

Being In America: Sixty Years of the Metaphysical Society

Abstract: "On April 15, 1950 at Yale University, Paul Weiss called to order the first meeting of... more Abstract:

Being in America: Sixty Years of the Metaphysical Society

Beyond Metaphysics? Explorations in Alfred North Whitehead's Late Thought

Table of Contents
Introduction:
Roland Faber and Brian G. Henning: Whitehead’s Other Copernican Turn

Genesis, Evolution, and the Search for a Reasoned Faith

The Ethics of Creativity: Beauty, Morality, and Nature in a Processive Cosmos

The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1924-1925, 2017

Being in America, 2014

The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2015

Daedalus, 2015

Beyond Metaphysics? Explorations in Alfred North Whitehead’s Late Thought

Process Studies, 2011

Ethics and the Environment, 2011

Whitehead at Harvard, 1924-1925, 2020

Feeling Animal Death, 2019

In his brief preface to Adventures of Ideas, Whitehead provides a rare window into how he conceiv... more In his brief preface to Adventures of Ideas, Whitehead provides a rare window into how he conceived of his own work. “The three books—Science and The Modern World, Process and Reality, Adventures of Ideas—are an endeavour to express a way of understanding the nature of things…. Each book can be read separately; but they supplement each other’s omissions or compressions” (AI vii). If I am correct, one of the most important concepts in process thought is virtually absent from Whitehead’s magnum opus, Process and Reality. I suggest that the single most important “omission” remedied by Adventures of Ideas is the claim that beauty is the one self-justifying aim of the universe, that “The teleology of the Universe is directed to the production of Beauty” (AI 265). Creativity is in this sense “kalogenic”; it is inherently beauty generating. Though there are notable exceptions, surprisingly few process scholars have recognized and embraced the significance of this
claim. Indeed, beauty is notable in its absence from most of the major works on process metaphysics, which tend to focus on Whitehead’s Science and the Modern World and Process and Reality. Perhaps fearing charges of aestheticism, those who do note the centrality of beauty have mistakenly sought either to minimize its significance or to explain it away as metaphorical embellishment. The goal of this brief essay is to defend the view that process thought, particularly process ethics, will be more adequate and applicable if it is “re-centered” around the concept of beauty.

In this article the work of a recent critic of moral vegetarianism (and veganism) is analyzed: An... more In this article the work of a recent critic of moral vegetarianism (and veganism) is analyzed: Andrew F. Smith. Smith's work is significant for process thinkers who defend moral vegetarianism for various reasons. One of these is that he forces process thinkers to consider in more depth Whitehead's view of plant ontology; another is that Smith adds insightfully to the conversation within process thought regarding the relationship between claims regarding animal rights and the ecoholistic concerns of environmental ethicists.

Even under the most optimistic scenarios for technological improvements in livestock efficiency, ... more Even under the most optimistic scenarios for technological improvements in livestock efficiency, nine billion humans cannot continue to eat animals at the current and projected rates and avoid catastrophic environmental harms. In the end, the more animal products one consumes, the more destructive one’s diet is to the environment. Though important and morally relevant qualitative differences exist between industrial and non-industrial methods, given the present and projected size of the human population, the morality and sustainability of one’s diet are inversely related to the proportion of animals and animal products in one’s diet. Thus, if we are to ensure adequate food and water for all humans without exceeding the Earth’s capacity to support life, we must find the courage to address directly the morality of eating meat on an increasingly small planet.
(N.B. This essay was originally published as “Standing in Livestock’s ‘Long Shadow’: The Ethics of Eating Meat on a Small Planet.” It appears here with updated statistics with the permission of the publisher.)

n the opening years of the new millennium, long-simmering conflicts have exploded into a rolling ... more n the opening years of the new millennium, long-simmering conflicts have exploded into a rolling boil of fear, hostility and violence. Dogmatism is on the rise as moral superiority and righteousness replace compromise and consensus-building.

This is an Italian translation of my article "Stewardship and the Roots of the Ecological Crisis:... more This is an Italian translation of my article "Stewardship and the Roots of the Ecological Crisis: Reflections on Laudato Si'." The English version can be found on Academia.edu as well.

The aim of this essay is twofold. First, I examine the role of Alfred North Whitehead and process... more The aim of this essay is twofold. First, I examine the role of Alfred North Whitehead and process thinkers in bringing about and shaping the field of environmental ethics. As we will see, our job is not so much to develop the connections between Whitehead and environmental thought as to recover them. Second, given this genealogical work, I invite process scholars to reconsider their generally hostile reception of Aldo Leopold and his land ethic. I suggest that a version of the land ethic grounded in a process axiology could make a significant contribution to contemporary environmental thought.

Consenting to God and Nature

Process Studies, 2007

Making Morality

Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, 2003

Environmental Ethics

International Philosophical Quarterly, 2004

The opportunity to read and reflect on the fourth volume (1931-1940) of presidential addresses o... more The opportunity to read and reflect on the fourth volume (1931-1940) of presidential addresses of the American Philosophical Association has been in equal measures rewarding, humbling, and taxing. Having recently completed my own edited volume of presidential addresses of another philosophical society, I have been thoroughly disabused of the notion that there is any particular form or content that defines a philosophical presidential address. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the topics of the addresses are as varied as the field that they represent. From aesthetics, science, ethics and political theory to epistemology, metaphysics, and religion, the addresses of the 1930s are diverse. Nevertheless, I have endeavored to impose some order on the collection, grouping them into six rough divisions, primarily by their similarity of subject matter or methodology.
The first grouping of addresses focus on the ongoing debate between idealism and realism, with more representation from the latter than the former. The second section considers eight addresses that are similar in addressing to some degree classical figures and ideas in the pragmatist tradition. The discussion of pragmatism is followed by the third section, which is comprised of two essays on personalism. The fourth section considers the addresses of C. I. Lewis and Alfred North Whitehead. Although one could justify locating them in either the first or second sections, given that the work of Lewis and Whitehead have the most enduring and significant impact on subsequent thought, it seems appropriate to consider them separately. The fifth division examines six addresses that are similar in that they are all concerned with examining the scope, purpose, and value of philosophy itself. The sixth and final grouping of addresses is defined not by their philosophical commitments, but their discussion of the growing threat of totalitarian fascism in Europe and the Pacific. While addresses by Whitehead and Lewis are perhaps the most philosophically significant in this decade, historically it is these five addresses by Tufts, Mitchell, Leighton, Morrow, and Sisson that I found to be most interesting in that they provide a window into the depth of the existential and philosophical threat posed by fascist ideology of the 1930s.

A philosopher asks: Do we have a moral responsibility to avoid meat in the age of climate change?... more A philosopher asks: Do we have a moral responsibility to avoid meat in the age of climate change?

An Interview

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 | 5 QUESTIONS | BY JEFFERSON ROBBINS