Piers Stephens | The University of Georgia (original) (raw)

Papers by Piers Stephens

Research paper thumbnail of Debate - The Green only Blooms amid the Millian Flowers. A Reply to Marcel Wissenburg

Environmental Politics, 2001

Having argued that formalistic modern liberalism is unpromising for expressing green values, I wa... more Having argued that formalistic modern liberalism is unpromising for expressing green values, I was highly engaged by Wissenburg’s sharp, astute defence of Green Liberalism. I am grateful for his clarifications and challenges, and am delighted to reply in turn. First, let us clarify our political places. Wissenburg, largely rightly, says that we ‘seem to share a conviction that liberal democratic institutions and liberal values are here to stay and worth sustaining’. Reasons why we stand ‘on opposite sides of the Mill’ probably derive from different views about the current health of liberal democracy and the reasons behind such failings as it may have. Here, I am a green first and a liberal second. Whilst supporting liberal values, I see the green movement not merely as advocating sustainability but as opposing the resourcism of the neoWeberian instrumental rationality manifested in the contemporary capitalist order, and the oft-diagnosed senses of disconnection in modernity. Empirically, my position on the current health of liberal democracy, and hence on its core values’ survival chances, is summarised by Monbiot:

Research paper thumbnail of Review article - Hubris, Humility, History and Harmony: Human Belonging and the Uses of Nature

Environmental Politics, 2002

... Leopold, Aldo (1987), A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Oxford: Oxford Unive... more ... Leopold, Aldo (1987), A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ... Stephens, Piers HG (2000), 'Nature, Purity, Ontology', Environmental Values, Vol.9, No.3, Autumn, pp.267–94. 180 ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS ...

Research paper thumbnail of Consequentialism and Environmental Ethics, edited by Avram Hiller, Ramona Ilea, and Leonard Kahn

Teaching Philosophy, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Interpretations on Behalf of Place

Environmental Ethics, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of Musimy być kimś w rodzaju tłumacza. Filozofia środowiskowa, polityki redystrybucji i kryzys ekologiczny

Hybris

Piers, jesteś światowej klasy filozofem środowiskowym, ukierunkowanym na zagadnienia filozofii po... more Piers, jesteś światowej klasy filozofem środowiskowym, ukierunkowanym na zagadnienia filozofii politycznej i historii idei. Jesteś także redaktorem naczelnym Ethics and the Environmentjednego z wiodących czasopism z dziedziny etyki środowiskowej. Na pewno masz zatem odpowiedź na następujące pytanie: jakie są, z politycznego punktu widzenia, najpilniejsze kroki, które należy podjąć, aby walczyć z kryzysem ekologicznym? Stephens: Co z , mys lę, z e jest ich kilka. Po pierwsze, są to działania demokratyczne, polegające na wprowadzeniu polityk, kto re ograniczą emisje zanieczyszczen i pozwolą przejs c na czystą energię. Zmiana klimatu nie jest najlepszym punktem wyjs cia do przedstawiania ekokryzysu, ale stała się kryzysem, w ramach kto rego ujmuje się większos c innych problemo w, takich jak bioro z norodnos c czy produkcja s mieci. Wszystko to pogarsza kryzys ekologiczny, a zatem jego skutki stają się zro z nicowane. Dlatego mys lę, z e jest kilka kroko w, kto re musimy przedsięwziąc. Jedne dotyczą problemo w politycznych o charakterze 2 The interview in English starts on page 48.

Research paper thumbnail of J. Baird Callicott Beyond the Land Ethic

Environmental Values, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Pragmatism, Pluralism, Empiricism and Relational Values

Environmental Values, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of педагогічні умови активізації рухової активності дітей

Херсон, 2019

Herbal teas are widely consumed in Turkey. This study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activit... more Herbal teas are widely consumed in Turkey. This study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of methanol, acetone, and aqueous extracts of endemic Sideritis galatica plant collected from Afyonkarahisar. For this purpose, the effect of different concentrations (2.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%) of these extracts on L. monocytogenes, B. cereus, S. aureus, E. faecalis, E. coli, E. coli O157, S. typhimurium, C. albicans were investigated by the disk diffusion method. Methanol extract showed antimicrobial activity against all of the tested microorganisms. Also, acetone and aqueous extracts showed antimicrobial activity against all of the tested microorganisms except E. faecalis (for acetone extract), E. coli and E. coli O157 (for aqueous extract). Consequently, S. galatica as an endemic plant showed antimicrobial activity especially at high concentrations against tested microorganisms. Endemik Sideritis galatica bitkisinin antimikrobiyal etkisinin araştırılması ÖZET: Bitkisel çaylar Türkiye'de yaygın olarak tüketilmektedir. Bu çalışmada Afyonkarahisar'dan toplanan endemik Sideritis galatica bitkisinin metanol, aseton ve sulu ekstraktlarının antimikrobiyal aktivitesi değerlendirildi. Bu amaçla, bu ekstraktların farklı konsantrasyonlarının (% 2,5, % 5, % 10, % 20) L. monocytogenes, B. cereus, S. aureus, E. faecalis, E. coli, E. coli O157, S. typhimurium, C. albicans disk difüzyon yöntemi ile araştırıldı. Metanol ekstraktı test edilen tüm mikroorganizmalara karşı antimikrobiyal aktivite gösterdi. Ayrıca, aseton ve sulu ekstraktlar, E. faecalis (aseton ekstraktı için), E. coli ve E. coli O157 (sulu ekstrakt için) hariç test edilen tüm mikroorganizmalara karşı antimikrobiyal aktivite gösterdi. Sonuç olarak, endemik bir bitki olarak Sideritis galatica, test edilen mikroorganizmalara karşı özellikle yüksek konsantrasyonlarda antimikrobiyal aktivite gösterdi.

Research paper thumbnail of Vladimir Bibikhin, The Woods

Environmental Values, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Environmental Political Theory and the Liberal Tradition

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016

This chapter discusses the history of environmental concern within the liberal tradition from the... more This chapter discusses the history of environmental concern within the liberal tradition from the latter’s roots onwards, moving from the private property orientated “old liberalism” of John Locke into the self-development orientated “new liberalism” of John Stuart Mill, then onwards into American pragmatism and the neutralist liberalism of John Rawls and his contemporary followers. This leads into an overview of the current debate, which started in the 1990s, over the possibilities of synthesizing environmentalist goals of sustainability and nature protection with some variant of liberalism. The chapter concludes with an argument that yokes the new liberal concern with self-development to the environmentalist emphasis on nature protection, arguing that the continued existence of relatively untransformed nonhuman nature is a vital precondition and assistance to human imaginative development and thus freedom.

Research paper thumbnail of Democracy and Green Political Thought

Democracy and Green Political Thought, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of The Turn of the Skew: Pragmatism, Environmental Philosophy and the Ghost of William James

Contemporary Pragmatism, 2012

This paper addresses two issues: the controversy over pragmatism in environmental philosophy, and... more This paper addresses two issues: the controversy over pragmatism in environmental philosophy, and the habitual exclusion of William James's work from serious examination. Addressing critiques of pragmatic naturalism from Max Horkheimer, Eugene Hargrove and Holmes Rolston, I argue that their criticisms misfire, primarily due to skewed perception derived from mis-interpretative projections of views to which pragmatism is not committed. I conclude that the critics' major concerns are largely groundless, but that greater emphasis on pragmatism's experiential aspect would clarify this.1. IntroductionThe possibility that pragmatism might offer a new, better direction for environmental ethics was first raised by Anthony Weston in a path-breaking paper in 1985,1 since which time a significant debate between pragmatists and anti-pragmatists has affected the whole field. Arguments on the pragmatist side have tended to criticize the high level of abstraction found within environmental ethics, often arguing against the practical helpfulness of the habitual stress on theoretical axiology, especially intrinsic value theory.In place of these axiological emphases, pragmatists have urged a greater and more pluralist attendance to specifics of particular environmental problems, and aimed at a greater emphasis on practical policy convergence in political terms. Thus Weston urges a pragmatic "multicentrism" and a plurality of revisioning options for our everyday relationships to the natural world; Andrew Light has suggested a metaphilosophical pragmatism that may help separate wheat from chaff in otherwise interminable theoretical debates, and Bryan Norton has advocated a convergence hypothesis on policy that tries to defuse the tensions between anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric varieties of environmental concern as well as attempting to justify strong conceptions of sustainability in broadly pragmatic terms. On the anti-pragmatist side, J. Baird Callicott has stoutly defended the emphasis on axiology and intrinsic value theory for its radical potential, repudiating pragmatic pluralism in the process, whilst figures such as Eric Katz, Holmes Rolston and Eugene Hargrove have criticized what they perceive as excessive anthropocentrism, subjectivism and instrumentalism within pragmatism. The pragmatist perspective has also attracted hostility outside North America, with similar but more overtly political suspicions of American pragmatism to those of Callicott, Rolston and Hargrove coming from the European left, where the pragmatic connection of truth with success and utility has drawn fire.Accordingly, a range of anti-pragmatist critics exist, and part of what is striking about their criticisms from a pragmatist perspective is the extent to which the complaints have continuously repeated the same broad themes in response to answers. Thus it remains common for critics to assume a radical incompatibility between pragmatism and intrinsic value theory, despite Hugh McDonald's demonstration that Deweyan ethics actually includes intrinsic value concepts.4 Similarly, the view of pragmatism as subjectivist and thus antinaturalistic is frequently taken for granted, as is the claim that pragmatism is anti-theoretical. This last view, which (as we shall see) is in fact a reheating of quite an old charge, has been maintained by Callicott in his attacks on pragmatism,5 and in fairness, it must be conceded that many environmental pragmatists' fixation on policy and management may have contributed to the view that pragmatism offers little room for intellectual novelty or theory. A similar case obtains, as we shall see, in relation to the lack of attention to the Jamesian tradition,6 where pragmatists themselves may have internalized the view of William James as an anti-naturalistic subjectivist. Thus, even Paul Thompson and Thomas Hilde' s compilation of essays on American pragmatism and the agrarian tradition, which finds room for such figures as Benjamin Franklin and John Steinbeck as well as the more familiar names of Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, Royce, Peirce and Dewey, gives only passing mention to James. …

Research paper thumbnail of Nature and Human Liberty: The Golden Country in George Orwell’s 1984 and an Alternative Conception of Human Freedom

Organization & Environment, 2004

Page 1. 10.1177/1086026603262032ARTICLE ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT / March 2004 Stephens / NA... more Page 1. 10.1177/1086026603262032ARTICLE ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT / March 2004 Stephens / NATURE AND HUMAN LIBERTY NATURE AND HUMAN LIBERTY The Golden Country in George Orwell's 1984 and an Alternative Conception of Human Freedom ...

Research paper thumbnail of Nature, Purity, Ontology

Environmental Values, 2000

Standard defences of preservationism, and of the intrinsic value of nature more generally, are vu... more Standard defences of preservationism, and of the intrinsic value of nature more generally, are vulnerable to at least three objections. The first of these comes from social constructivism, the second from the claim that it is incoherent to argue that nature is both 'other' and something with which we can feel unity, whilst the third links defences of nature to authoritarian objectivism and dangerously misanthropic normative dichotomies which set pure nature against impure humanity. I argue that all these objections may be answered by recasting the relationship between man and nature into a tripartite spectrum of ontological form between nature and artifact, with the key question being the extent to which nature has been humanised in accordance with certain modes of strongly instrumental rationality, these in turn being defined by reference to the split between abstract reason and natural feeling which was exacerbated by specific elements in the Enlightenment period. This new...

Research paper thumbnail of Economical with the proof: Blind preferences and visionary ethics

Environmental Politics, 1998

In recent years, dozens of countries have introduced accreditation and other quality improvement ... more In recent years, dozens of countries have introduced accreditation and other quality improvement initiatives. A great deal of information is available regarding best practices in high-and middle-income countries; however, little is available to guide developing nations seeking to introduce an accreditation programme. This paper describes the outputs and lessons learned in the first year of establishing an accreditation programme in Liberia, a developing nation in West Africa that in 2003 emerged from a brutal 14-year civil war. The Liberian experience of developing and implementing a government-sponsored, widespread accreditation programme may provide insight to other low-income and post-conflict countries seeking a way to drive rapid, system-wide reform in the health system, even with limited infrastructure and extremely challenging conditions.

Research paper thumbnail of Toward a Jamesian Environmental Philosophy

Environmental Ethics, 2009

Page 1. 1 Towards a Jamesian Environmental Philosophy by Piers HG Stephens, Michigan State Univer... more Page 1. 1 Towards a Jamesian Environmental Philosophy by Piers HG Stephens, Michigan State University Introduction: Pragmatism, Axiology and Environmental Philosophy Since Anthony Weston's pathfinding 1985 essay ...

Research paper thumbnail of Contemporary Environmental Politics

Contemporary Environmental Politics, 2006

Page 1. Contemporary Environmental Politics From margins to mainstream Edited by Piers HG Stephen... more Page 1. Contemporary Environmental Politics From margins to mainstream Edited by Piers HG Stephens, with John Barry and Andrew Dobson Routledge Research in Environmental Politics Page 2. Contemporary Environmental ...

Research paper thumbnail of Alternative Conception of Human Freedom

The relationship of human liberty to both external nature and human inner nature entails a comple... more The relationship of human liberty to both external nature and human inner nature entails a complex knot of questions that have long been the subject of intense philosophical discussion. In the modern era, a strong dichotomy developed between these concepts in which human freedom was counterposed to an apparently determinate nature that existed as a valueless res extensa. In this article, however, the author argues for the presence and vitality of an alternative concept of human liberty, one that relies not on the ownership of property but on nature as a point outside the system of human instrumental control and as the hall of mirrors represented by collective solipsism. The author arrives at this point through careful study of the underresearched naturalistic scenes and elements in George Orwell’s highly influential 1984, drawing out the complex interconnections of nature, liberty, and fulfillment found within them. This study illustrates the usefulness of the dystopian imagination ...

Research paper thumbnail of Plumwood, Property, Selfhood and Sustainability: Some Preliminary Reflections 1

Western perceptions of the environmental crisis and the rationalist, technocratic methods by whic... more Western perceptions of the environmental crisis and the rationalist, technocratic methods by which sustainability is usually conceived and aimed at are badly flawed. The challenges we face are thus not merely matters for better management under the predominant existing forms of rationality, but also ‘a crisis of the culture of reason or of what the dominant global culture has made of reason’, namely the ‘arrogant and insensitive forms of it that have evolved in the framework of rationalism and its dominant narrative of reason’s mastery of the opposing sphere of nature and disengagement from nature’s contaminating elements of emotion, attachment and embodiment’2. Developing her critique of this disembodied, disengaged and polarizing type of dualistic reason, she builds upon the earlier insights of her 1993 book Feminism and the Mastery of Nature to reiterate and develop her account of its historic roots and give a clearer outline of possible ethical and political alternatives. For Pl...

Research paper thumbnail of DEBATE Green Liberalisms: Nature, Agency and the Good

Marcel Wissenburg’s Green Liberalism attempts to reconcile liberalism and ecologism by capturing ... more Marcel Wissenburg’s Green Liberalism attempts to reconcile liberalism and ecologism by capturing the substance of most green demands within a formalistic liberal framework. Using historical analysis, I argue that formalistic modern liberalisms in practice reverse into particular models of human nature and the self, embodying particular background ideals of human nature, flourishing and agency which may be more or less conducive to green outcomes. Contrasting Lockean and Millian liberalism, I argue that Wissenburg’s work is ultimately flawed for green outcomes through use of a formal scheme which enshrines a quasi-Lockean subject–object division in which human preferences are projected onto nature in economistic fashion, tending to squeeze out soft values of encounter with nature. Wissenburg’s invocation of classical virtues to offset market instrumentalism is too underdeveloped to counterbalance this bias, and I maintain that the broader background ideals found in pragmatist or Mill...

Research paper thumbnail of Debate - The Green only Blooms amid the Millian Flowers. A Reply to Marcel Wissenburg

Environmental Politics, 2001

Having argued that formalistic modern liberalism is unpromising for expressing green values, I wa... more Having argued that formalistic modern liberalism is unpromising for expressing green values, I was highly engaged by Wissenburg’s sharp, astute defence of Green Liberalism. I am grateful for his clarifications and challenges, and am delighted to reply in turn. First, let us clarify our political places. Wissenburg, largely rightly, says that we ‘seem to share a conviction that liberal democratic institutions and liberal values are here to stay and worth sustaining’. Reasons why we stand ‘on opposite sides of the Mill’ probably derive from different views about the current health of liberal democracy and the reasons behind such failings as it may have. Here, I am a green first and a liberal second. Whilst supporting liberal values, I see the green movement not merely as advocating sustainability but as opposing the resourcism of the neoWeberian instrumental rationality manifested in the contemporary capitalist order, and the oft-diagnosed senses of disconnection in modernity. Empirically, my position on the current health of liberal democracy, and hence on its core values’ survival chances, is summarised by Monbiot:

Research paper thumbnail of Review article - Hubris, Humility, History and Harmony: Human Belonging and the Uses of Nature

Environmental Politics, 2002

... Leopold, Aldo (1987), A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Oxford: Oxford Unive... more ... Leopold, Aldo (1987), A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ... Stephens, Piers HG (2000), 'Nature, Purity, Ontology', Environmental Values, Vol.9, No.3, Autumn, pp.267–94. 180 ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS ...

Research paper thumbnail of Consequentialism and Environmental Ethics, edited by Avram Hiller, Ramona Ilea, and Leonard Kahn

Teaching Philosophy, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Interpretations on Behalf of Place

Environmental Ethics, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of Musimy być kimś w rodzaju tłumacza. Filozofia środowiskowa, polityki redystrybucji i kryzys ekologiczny

Hybris

Piers, jesteś światowej klasy filozofem środowiskowym, ukierunkowanym na zagadnienia filozofii po... more Piers, jesteś światowej klasy filozofem środowiskowym, ukierunkowanym na zagadnienia filozofii politycznej i historii idei. Jesteś także redaktorem naczelnym Ethics and the Environmentjednego z wiodących czasopism z dziedziny etyki środowiskowej. Na pewno masz zatem odpowiedź na następujące pytanie: jakie są, z politycznego punktu widzenia, najpilniejsze kroki, które należy podjąć, aby walczyć z kryzysem ekologicznym? Stephens: Co z , mys lę, z e jest ich kilka. Po pierwsze, są to działania demokratyczne, polegające na wprowadzeniu polityk, kto re ograniczą emisje zanieczyszczen i pozwolą przejs c na czystą energię. Zmiana klimatu nie jest najlepszym punktem wyjs cia do przedstawiania ekokryzysu, ale stała się kryzysem, w ramach kto rego ujmuje się większos c innych problemo w, takich jak bioro z norodnos c czy produkcja s mieci. Wszystko to pogarsza kryzys ekologiczny, a zatem jego skutki stają się zro z nicowane. Dlatego mys lę, z e jest kilka kroko w, kto re musimy przedsięwziąc. Jedne dotyczą problemo w politycznych o charakterze 2 The interview in English starts on page 48.

Research paper thumbnail of J. Baird Callicott Beyond the Land Ethic

Environmental Values, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Pragmatism, Pluralism, Empiricism and Relational Values

Environmental Values, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of педагогічні умови активізації рухової активності дітей

Херсон, 2019

Herbal teas are widely consumed in Turkey. This study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activit... more Herbal teas are widely consumed in Turkey. This study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of methanol, acetone, and aqueous extracts of endemic Sideritis galatica plant collected from Afyonkarahisar. For this purpose, the effect of different concentrations (2.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%) of these extracts on L. monocytogenes, B. cereus, S. aureus, E. faecalis, E. coli, E. coli O157, S. typhimurium, C. albicans were investigated by the disk diffusion method. Methanol extract showed antimicrobial activity against all of the tested microorganisms. Also, acetone and aqueous extracts showed antimicrobial activity against all of the tested microorganisms except E. faecalis (for acetone extract), E. coli and E. coli O157 (for aqueous extract). Consequently, S. galatica as an endemic plant showed antimicrobial activity especially at high concentrations against tested microorganisms. Endemik Sideritis galatica bitkisinin antimikrobiyal etkisinin araştırılması ÖZET: Bitkisel çaylar Türkiye'de yaygın olarak tüketilmektedir. Bu çalışmada Afyonkarahisar'dan toplanan endemik Sideritis galatica bitkisinin metanol, aseton ve sulu ekstraktlarının antimikrobiyal aktivitesi değerlendirildi. Bu amaçla, bu ekstraktların farklı konsantrasyonlarının (% 2,5, % 5, % 10, % 20) L. monocytogenes, B. cereus, S. aureus, E. faecalis, E. coli, E. coli O157, S. typhimurium, C. albicans disk difüzyon yöntemi ile araştırıldı. Metanol ekstraktı test edilen tüm mikroorganizmalara karşı antimikrobiyal aktivite gösterdi. Ayrıca, aseton ve sulu ekstraktlar, E. faecalis (aseton ekstraktı için), E. coli ve E. coli O157 (sulu ekstrakt için) hariç test edilen tüm mikroorganizmalara karşı antimikrobiyal aktivite gösterdi. Sonuç olarak, endemik bir bitki olarak Sideritis galatica, test edilen mikroorganizmalara karşı özellikle yüksek konsantrasyonlarda antimikrobiyal aktivite gösterdi.

Research paper thumbnail of Vladimir Bibikhin, The Woods

Environmental Values, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of Environmental Political Theory and the Liberal Tradition

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016

This chapter discusses the history of environmental concern within the liberal tradition from the... more This chapter discusses the history of environmental concern within the liberal tradition from the latter’s roots onwards, moving from the private property orientated “old liberalism” of John Locke into the self-development orientated “new liberalism” of John Stuart Mill, then onwards into American pragmatism and the neutralist liberalism of John Rawls and his contemporary followers. This leads into an overview of the current debate, which started in the 1990s, over the possibilities of synthesizing environmentalist goals of sustainability and nature protection with some variant of liberalism. The chapter concludes with an argument that yokes the new liberal concern with self-development to the environmentalist emphasis on nature protection, arguing that the continued existence of relatively untransformed nonhuman nature is a vital precondition and assistance to human imaginative development and thus freedom.

Research paper thumbnail of Democracy and Green Political Thought

Democracy and Green Political Thought, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of The Turn of the Skew: Pragmatism, Environmental Philosophy and the Ghost of William James

Contemporary Pragmatism, 2012

This paper addresses two issues: the controversy over pragmatism in environmental philosophy, and... more This paper addresses two issues: the controversy over pragmatism in environmental philosophy, and the habitual exclusion of William James's work from serious examination. Addressing critiques of pragmatic naturalism from Max Horkheimer, Eugene Hargrove and Holmes Rolston, I argue that their criticisms misfire, primarily due to skewed perception derived from mis-interpretative projections of views to which pragmatism is not committed. I conclude that the critics' major concerns are largely groundless, but that greater emphasis on pragmatism's experiential aspect would clarify this.1. IntroductionThe possibility that pragmatism might offer a new, better direction for environmental ethics was first raised by Anthony Weston in a path-breaking paper in 1985,1 since which time a significant debate between pragmatists and anti-pragmatists has affected the whole field. Arguments on the pragmatist side have tended to criticize the high level of abstraction found within environmental ethics, often arguing against the practical helpfulness of the habitual stress on theoretical axiology, especially intrinsic value theory.In place of these axiological emphases, pragmatists have urged a greater and more pluralist attendance to specifics of particular environmental problems, and aimed at a greater emphasis on practical policy convergence in political terms. Thus Weston urges a pragmatic "multicentrism" and a plurality of revisioning options for our everyday relationships to the natural world; Andrew Light has suggested a metaphilosophical pragmatism that may help separate wheat from chaff in otherwise interminable theoretical debates, and Bryan Norton has advocated a convergence hypothesis on policy that tries to defuse the tensions between anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric varieties of environmental concern as well as attempting to justify strong conceptions of sustainability in broadly pragmatic terms. On the anti-pragmatist side, J. Baird Callicott has stoutly defended the emphasis on axiology and intrinsic value theory for its radical potential, repudiating pragmatic pluralism in the process, whilst figures such as Eric Katz, Holmes Rolston and Eugene Hargrove have criticized what they perceive as excessive anthropocentrism, subjectivism and instrumentalism within pragmatism. The pragmatist perspective has also attracted hostility outside North America, with similar but more overtly political suspicions of American pragmatism to those of Callicott, Rolston and Hargrove coming from the European left, where the pragmatic connection of truth with success and utility has drawn fire.Accordingly, a range of anti-pragmatist critics exist, and part of what is striking about their criticisms from a pragmatist perspective is the extent to which the complaints have continuously repeated the same broad themes in response to answers. Thus it remains common for critics to assume a radical incompatibility between pragmatism and intrinsic value theory, despite Hugh McDonald's demonstration that Deweyan ethics actually includes intrinsic value concepts.4 Similarly, the view of pragmatism as subjectivist and thus antinaturalistic is frequently taken for granted, as is the claim that pragmatism is anti-theoretical. This last view, which (as we shall see) is in fact a reheating of quite an old charge, has been maintained by Callicott in his attacks on pragmatism,5 and in fairness, it must be conceded that many environmental pragmatists' fixation on policy and management may have contributed to the view that pragmatism offers little room for intellectual novelty or theory. A similar case obtains, as we shall see, in relation to the lack of attention to the Jamesian tradition,6 where pragmatists themselves may have internalized the view of William James as an anti-naturalistic subjectivist. Thus, even Paul Thompson and Thomas Hilde' s compilation of essays on American pragmatism and the agrarian tradition, which finds room for such figures as Benjamin Franklin and John Steinbeck as well as the more familiar names of Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, Royce, Peirce and Dewey, gives only passing mention to James. …

Research paper thumbnail of Nature and Human Liberty: The Golden Country in George Orwell’s 1984 and an Alternative Conception of Human Freedom

Organization & Environment, 2004

Page 1. 10.1177/1086026603262032ARTICLE ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT / March 2004 Stephens / NA... more Page 1. 10.1177/1086026603262032ARTICLE ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT / March 2004 Stephens / NATURE AND HUMAN LIBERTY NATURE AND HUMAN LIBERTY The Golden Country in George Orwell's 1984 and an Alternative Conception of Human Freedom ...

Research paper thumbnail of Nature, Purity, Ontology

Environmental Values, 2000

Standard defences of preservationism, and of the intrinsic value of nature more generally, are vu... more Standard defences of preservationism, and of the intrinsic value of nature more generally, are vulnerable to at least three objections. The first of these comes from social constructivism, the second from the claim that it is incoherent to argue that nature is both 'other' and something with which we can feel unity, whilst the third links defences of nature to authoritarian objectivism and dangerously misanthropic normative dichotomies which set pure nature against impure humanity. I argue that all these objections may be answered by recasting the relationship between man and nature into a tripartite spectrum of ontological form between nature and artifact, with the key question being the extent to which nature has been humanised in accordance with certain modes of strongly instrumental rationality, these in turn being defined by reference to the split between abstract reason and natural feeling which was exacerbated by specific elements in the Enlightenment period. This new...

Research paper thumbnail of Economical with the proof: Blind preferences and visionary ethics

Environmental Politics, 1998

In recent years, dozens of countries have introduced accreditation and other quality improvement ... more In recent years, dozens of countries have introduced accreditation and other quality improvement initiatives. A great deal of information is available regarding best practices in high-and middle-income countries; however, little is available to guide developing nations seeking to introduce an accreditation programme. This paper describes the outputs and lessons learned in the first year of establishing an accreditation programme in Liberia, a developing nation in West Africa that in 2003 emerged from a brutal 14-year civil war. The Liberian experience of developing and implementing a government-sponsored, widespread accreditation programme may provide insight to other low-income and post-conflict countries seeking a way to drive rapid, system-wide reform in the health system, even with limited infrastructure and extremely challenging conditions.

Research paper thumbnail of Toward a Jamesian Environmental Philosophy

Environmental Ethics, 2009

Page 1. 1 Towards a Jamesian Environmental Philosophy by Piers HG Stephens, Michigan State Univer... more Page 1. 1 Towards a Jamesian Environmental Philosophy by Piers HG Stephens, Michigan State University Introduction: Pragmatism, Axiology and Environmental Philosophy Since Anthony Weston's pathfinding 1985 essay ...

Research paper thumbnail of Contemporary Environmental Politics

Contemporary Environmental Politics, 2006

Page 1. Contemporary Environmental Politics From margins to mainstream Edited by Piers HG Stephen... more Page 1. Contemporary Environmental Politics From margins to mainstream Edited by Piers HG Stephens, with John Barry and Andrew Dobson Routledge Research in Environmental Politics Page 2. Contemporary Environmental ...

Research paper thumbnail of Alternative Conception of Human Freedom

The relationship of human liberty to both external nature and human inner nature entails a comple... more The relationship of human liberty to both external nature and human inner nature entails a complex knot of questions that have long been the subject of intense philosophical discussion. In the modern era, a strong dichotomy developed between these concepts in which human freedom was counterposed to an apparently determinate nature that existed as a valueless res extensa. In this article, however, the author argues for the presence and vitality of an alternative concept of human liberty, one that relies not on the ownership of property but on nature as a point outside the system of human instrumental control and as the hall of mirrors represented by collective solipsism. The author arrives at this point through careful study of the underresearched naturalistic scenes and elements in George Orwell’s highly influential 1984, drawing out the complex interconnections of nature, liberty, and fulfillment found within them. This study illustrates the usefulness of the dystopian imagination ...

Research paper thumbnail of Plumwood, Property, Selfhood and Sustainability: Some Preliminary Reflections 1

Western perceptions of the environmental crisis and the rationalist, technocratic methods by whic... more Western perceptions of the environmental crisis and the rationalist, technocratic methods by which sustainability is usually conceived and aimed at are badly flawed. The challenges we face are thus not merely matters for better management under the predominant existing forms of rationality, but also ‘a crisis of the culture of reason or of what the dominant global culture has made of reason’, namely the ‘arrogant and insensitive forms of it that have evolved in the framework of rationalism and its dominant narrative of reason’s mastery of the opposing sphere of nature and disengagement from nature’s contaminating elements of emotion, attachment and embodiment’2. Developing her critique of this disembodied, disengaged and polarizing type of dualistic reason, she builds upon the earlier insights of her 1993 book Feminism and the Mastery of Nature to reiterate and develop her account of its historic roots and give a clearer outline of possible ethical and political alternatives. For Pl...

Research paper thumbnail of DEBATE Green Liberalisms: Nature, Agency and the Good

Marcel Wissenburg’s Green Liberalism attempts to reconcile liberalism and ecologism by capturing ... more Marcel Wissenburg’s Green Liberalism attempts to reconcile liberalism and ecologism by capturing the substance of most green demands within a formalistic liberal framework. Using historical analysis, I argue that formalistic modern liberalisms in practice reverse into particular models of human nature and the self, embodying particular background ideals of human nature, flourishing and agency which may be more or less conducive to green outcomes. Contrasting Lockean and Millian liberalism, I argue that Wissenburg’s work is ultimately flawed for green outcomes through use of a formal scheme which enshrines a quasi-Lockean subject–object division in which human preferences are projected onto nature in economistic fashion, tending to squeeze out soft values of encounter with nature. Wissenburg’s invocation of classical virtues to offset market instrumentalism is too underdeveloped to counterbalance this bias, and I maintain that the broader background ideals found in pragmatist or Mill...

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Shane J. Ralston, "Pragmatic Environmentalism: Towards a Rhetoric of Eco-Justice", Leicester, UK: Troubadour Publishing, (2013), in "Ethics and the Environment", 19, No. 1, 2014, pp.123-31.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Ben Minteer's "Refounding Environmental Ethics: Pragmatism, Principle and Practice", Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press, (2011), in "Environmental Ethics", Vol. 35, No. 3, 2013, pp.371-4.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Laura Dassow Walls' "The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America" (2009), in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 24, No. 4, 2011, pp.479-81

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Harold Fromm's "The Nature of Being Human: From Environmentalism to Consciousness" (2009), in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 23, No. 4, 2010, pp.482-4.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Thomas Heyd's "Encountering Nature: Toward an Environmental Culture" (2007), in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 22. No.3, 2009, pp.371-3.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Warwick Fox's "A Theory of General Ethics: Human Relationships, Nature and the Built Environment" (2006), in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 21, No. 4, 2008, pp.488-90.

It's rare for anyone to be ambitious or imaginative enough to try to rethink ethics from first pr... more It's rare for anyone to be ambitious or imaginative enough to try to rethink ethics from first principles, and still more unusual for the result to be quite internally consistent and thought provoking. This is my review take on Warwick Fox's efforts in that direction.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Hugh P. McDonald's "John Dewey and Environmental Philosophy" (2004) in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 18, No. 2, pp.2005, pp.255-8.

Hugh McDonald has been a highly productive scholar and his work seems to me not to have attracted... more Hugh McDonald has been a highly productive scholar and his work seems to me not to have attracted all the recognition that it deserves. As I discuss in this review, this book of McDonald's is valuable in clearing away several myths and misunderstandings about pragmatism and intrinsic value, and it really deserves to have more impact accordingly.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Mary E. Clark's "In Search of Human Nature" (2003), in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 17, No. 2, 2004, pp.266-9.

Some books seem to cry out to be written. During the past three decades, we have seen not only a ... more Some books seem to cry out to be written. During the past three decades, we have seen not only a resurrection of the sort of laissez-faire economics that dominated the 19th and early 20th centuries but also an associated political will to legitimate the huge inequalities of wealth, fulfilment, and opportunity thus created and an affection for doing so by reference to arguments very like those of the old social Darwinists. The rise of the more highly reductive types of evolutionary psychology, often publicly promoted in self-serving ways by right-wing political interests rather than correctly and dispassionately presented as theory by evolutionary biologists themselves, has been hugely influential and has surely helped rein in popular optimism about Leftist political alternatives and the human future more broadly. Whilst some thinkers have responded with modest holding operations, such as the brisk march to mild social co-operationism found in Peter Singer's (2000) A Darwinian Left, the crisis of political confidence that has afflicted socialists, social liberals, and to some extent greens in recent years is well represented by the absence of any really rigorous defence of the more visionary, optimistic views of human nature and potential that have traditionally been the backbone of naturalistic political theories on the Left. In this impressively synthesised interdisciplinary book by biologist and interdisciplinary conflict resolution specialist Mary E. Clark, however, that rigorous defence may just have arrived. In a remarkably diverse volume that traverses the terrains of genetics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, archaeology, anthropology, history, conflict resolution, and political philosophy (broadly construed), Clark argues that human nature and existential requirements are both far less selfishly atomistic and much more meaning centred than most contemporary evolutionary psychology makes out. Whether one agrees with her findings or not, the sheer breadth of Clark's research commands respect, and surrounded by crude reductionist excesses, as we are in this area, her argument is surely one that has long been needed to be made in its general thrust.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Wayne Ouderkirk & Jim Hill's edited volume "Land, Value, Community: Callicott and Environmental Philosophy" (2002), from "Organization and Environment", Vol. 16, No. 2, 2003, pp.255-8.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Alan Carter's "A Radical Green Political Theory" (1999), in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 15, No.1, 2002, pp.99-102.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Andrew Dobson's edited volume "Fairness and Futurity: Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice" (1999) in "Organization and Environment", Vol. 14, No. 3, 2001, pp.372-5.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Marius de Geus' "The End of Overconsumption: Towards a Lifestyle of Moderation and Self-restraint" (2003), in "Environmental values", Vol. 13, No. 2, 2004, pp.263-6.

Marius de Geus' positions on Millian liberalism, environmentalism and utopian thought are very si... more Marius de Geus' positions on Millian liberalism, environmentalism and utopian thought are very similar to my own, so it was a real pleasure both to read this book and to be able to pick out points of divergence.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of J. Baird Callicott's "Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy" (1999), from "Environmental Values", Vol. 10, No. 1, 2001, pp.138-40.

I think of this as one of my more significant reviews, not only due to its dealings with the unde... more I think of this as one of my more significant reviews, not only due to its dealings with the underlying orientation of a major environmental philosopher but also because it is here that I say a few words about my own conception of philosophy's proper role and definition, which is similar but not identical to that of Callicott.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Emily Brady's "Aesthetics of the Natural Environment" (2003), in "Ecotheology", Vol. 9, No. 1, 2004, pp.133-5.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Eric G. Wilson's "The Melancholy Android: On the Psychology of Sacred Machines" (2006), in "Journal of Contemporary Religion", Vol. 22, No. 2, 2007, pp.415-6.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Bronislaw Szerszynski's "Nature, Technology and the Sacred" (2005), in "Journal of Contemporary Religion", Vol. 21, No. 1, 2006, pp.127-9

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Robert Mugerauer's "Interpretations on Behalf of Place" (1994), in the "Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology", Vol. 27, No. 3, 1996, pp.333-5.

Pp.xvi + 237; index. £46.25 (hardback); £15.25 (paperback). ISBN 0 7914 1943 6 and 0 7914 1944 4.... more Pp.xvi + 237; index. £46.25 (hardback); £15.25 (paperback). ISBN 0 7914 1943 6 and 0 7914 1944 4. In this work, Robert Mugerauer takes elements from the thought of four major figures -Foucault, Derrida, Eliade and Heidegger -as interpretative influences for the consideration, deconstruction and reconstruction of the built environment. Dividing the book into two parts, theoretical possibilities and practical application, Mugerauer devotes a chapter to each of the four, counterposing the critical and deconstructionist emphases of Foucault and Derrida with the stress on rootedness and the sacred found in Eliade and Heidegger. Confessing himself surprised that an underlying unity could be found, he characterises the interplay between the perspectives as a dance, a dance in which he finds that each 'counterpoint displaced what the other had taken to be dominant and regular; each stressed precisely what the other had taken to be weak' (p.8). Accordingly, a rhythmic tension is set up between the positions of the protagonists, linking and opposing poststructuralism and deconstruction to phenomenology and hermeneutics, in order to investigate the possibilities of retaining plural meaning without collapsing into cognitive nihilism. Context and locality is a vital framing constraint in this matter, and Mugerauer makes no bones about his emphasis on the USA, though architectural examples are also drawn from Europe, Australia and elsewhere.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Ben Minteer, "The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America", (2006), in "Environmental Politics", Vol. 16, No. 3, 2007, pp.530-1.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Andrew Light & Avner de Shalit (Eds.), "Moral and Political Reasoning in Environmental Practice" (2003), in "Environmental Politics", Vol. 13, No. 3, 2004, pp.663-4.

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Edward A. Page & John Proops (Eds.), "Environmental Thought", (2003), in "Environmental Politics",  Vol. 13, No. 2, 2004, pp.663-4.

Research paper thumbnail of Bernard Charbonneau, The Green Light. A Self-Critique of the Ecological Movement (Bloomsbury, 2018; translation of Le Feu vert. Autocritique du mouvement écologique, 1980)

The first translation into English of a work by Bernard Charbonneau (1910-1996), whom my research... more The first translation into English of a work by Bernard Charbonneau (1910-1996), whom my research has identified as the inventor of political ecology and the critique of Technique in 1930s Southwestern France along with his friend Jacques Ellul - the tandem of thinkers at the core of the Bordeaux School, as I have also called their regional brand of 'Gascon' Personalism. Though Charbonneau has the potential to reach a much wider, more varied public, Ellul's many followers around the world will now for the first time be able to acquaint themselves with their master's own mentor, to whom he repeatedly drew their attention as the original source of key insights he is known for, e.g.: “(Bernard Charbonneau) was one of the rare geniuses of our times….He taught me how to see the reality of society, instead of looking only into my books.” -Jacques Ellul (author of Théologie et Technique, a posthumous weaving together of the two distinct strands of his thought whose translation I have also just handed in for publication at Wipf & Stock). Charbonneau's thought in a nutshell: the needful alliance of nature and freedom against a totalitarian second nature —industrial society and its "progress"— that threatens both.

Research paper thumbnail of Contemporary Environmental Politics: From Margins to Mainstream

This new collection from the leading journal Environmental Politics presents an excellent overvie... more This new collection from the leading journal Environmental Politics presents an excellent overview of the key themes found in contemporary green political thought since the early 1990s.

Bringing together the journal's major work, this new book charts a fascinating period in which environmental politics developed from a marginal position in society and the academy, to its current place in the intellectual mainstream.

Subdivided into clear sections on political theory, social movements, political economy and policy questions, and assisted by a contextualising introduction, this volume focuses on a set of clear themes:

the character of green political theory
relationships with other political traditions and theories
origins and dynamics of contemporary environmental politics
differences, similarities and tensions between the North and South
the relationship of environmentalism to market economics and ecological modernization
environmental aspects of distributive justice at the local, national and global levels
the roles, value and valuing of nature in green theory and institutional practice.

As a compilation, this book is unique. It delivers a snapshot of a variety of issues in the field, and is therefore ideally suited to teaching purposes, especially at postgraduate level. In addition, as each section is chronologically arranged, an evolution of related ideas can be clearly seen and appreciated, which builds an excellent understanding of the field of environmental politics

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Arran E. Gare's "Nihilism Inc.: Environmental Destruction and the Metaphysics of Sustainability" (1996), from "Environmental Politics", Vol. 6, No. 3, 1997, pp.212-3, by Piers H.G. Stephens.

Environmental Politics, 1997

Review by Piers Stephens of Arran E. Gare's "Nihilism Inc.: Environmental Destruction and the Met... more Review by Piers Stephens of Arran E. Gare's "Nihilism Inc.: Environmental Destruction and the Metaphysics of Sustainability" (1996), from "Environmental Politics", Vol. 6, No. 3, 1997, pp.212-3.