This is the first book to outline a basic philosophy of ecology using the standard categories of academic philosophy: metaphysics, axiology, epistemology, aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy. The problems of global justice invariably involve ecological factors. Yet the science of ecology is itself imbued with philosophical questions. Therefore, studies in ecological justice, the sub-discipline of global justice that relates to the interaction of human and natural systems, should be preceded by the study of the philosophy of ecology. This book enables the reader to access a philosophy of ecology and shows how this philosophy is inherently normative and provides tools for securing ecological justice. The moral philosophy of ecology directly addresses the root cause of ecological and environmental injustice: the violation of fundamental human rights caused by the inequitable distribution of the benefits (economies) and costs (diseconomies) of industrialism. Philosophy of ecology thus has implications for human rights, pollution, poverty, unequal access to resources, sustainability, consumerism, land use, biodiversity, industrialization, energy policy, and other issues of social and global justice. This book offers an historical and interdisciplinary exegesis. The analysis is situated in the context of the Western intellectual tradition, and includes great thinkers in the history of ecological thinking in the West from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.¿

Foreword; Deen Chatterjee.- Preface.- Acknowledgements.- about the author.- PART I: The History of Ecology.- Chapter 1. Introduction: The Idea of Ecology.- Chapter 2. Ecological Thinking in the Western Tradition.- PART II: The Metaphysics of Ecology.- Chapter 3. Entities in Patterned Process.- Chapter 4. Patterned Process in Biological Evolution.- Chapter 5. Reductionism, Holism, and Hierarchy Theory.- PART III: The Epistemology of Ecology.- Chapter 6. Realism or Relativism?.- Chapter 7. From Empiricism and Rationalism to Kant and Nietzsche.- PART IV: The Normativity of Ecology.- Chapter 8. Ethics of Ecology.- Chapter 9. Political Economy of Ecology.- Chapter 10. Beauty, Bioempathy, and Ecological Ethics; Kirk Robinson.