Abstract

Through an examination of the life and work of Liberty Hyde Bailey, this study examines the possibility of an alternate ontological and epistemological foundation for environmental ethics and education that can adequately address the twin concerns of the status of the individual and of the social or biological whole of which the individual is a part. The thesis presented in this study is that a holistic approach that is conceived in terms of monistic idealism will not serve as well as a pluralistic approach that recognizes distinct individuals causally interconnected to form an ecological whole. The term "spirituality" is proposed as indicative of the mode of connection between individuals and wholes conceived in a pluralistic rather than monistic sense. Beginning with a critique of modern environmental philosophy as primarily oriented toward a holistic or monistic ontology, the study proceeds to an intellectual biography of Liberty Hyde Bailey , an important early thinker in environmental ethics and environmental education. The analysis of Bailey's life and work reveals his indebtedness both to Darwinian science, to certain strands of eighteenth century thought passed on through the agency of Freemasonry and to the liberal Protestant Christianity of the late 19th century. His mature philosophy was strongly individualistic, empirical and spiritual, where the "spiritual" is the mode of connection between self and other. Positive connections are drawn between Bailey's contemporaries John Dewey and Alfred North Whitehead, bolstering claims that the distinctly American philosophy exhibited by all three thinkers has important ramifications for environmental philosophy today. Recommendations for environmental ethics and environmental education for the twenty-first century conclude the study