31 found
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  1.  44
    Against Relational Value.Simon P. James - 2022 - The Harvard Review of Philosophy 29:45-54.
    In some environmental circles, talk of relational values is very much in fashion. It is said that we must think in terms of such values if we are to understand how such things as canyons, mangroves, and coral reefs matter to people. But that is bad advice. Appeals to relational values are typically misleading in several respects. Granted, those who make such appeals often do so in order to make the important point that some values are neither intrinsic nor instrumental (...)
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  2.  42
    Rarity and endangerment: Why do they matter?Simon P. James - 2024 - Environmental Values 33 (3):296-310.
    It is often supposed that valuable organisms are more valuable if they are rare. Likewise if they belong to endangered species. I consider what kinds of value rarity and endangerment can add in such cases. I argue that individual organisms of a valuable species typically have instrumental value as means to the end of preserving their species. This progenitive value, I suggest, tends to increase exponentially with rarity. Endlings, for their part, typically have little progenitive value; however, I argue that (...)
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  3. (1 other version)Zen Buddhism and Environmental Ethics.Simon P. James - 2005 - Environmental Values 14 (2):281-283.
     
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  4.  33
    Natural Meanings and Cultural Values.Simon P. James - 2019 - Environmental Ethics 41 (1):3-16.
    In many cases, rivers, mountains, forests, and other so-called natural entities have value for us because they contribute to our well-being. According to the standard model of such value, they have instrumental or “service” value for us on account of their causal powers. That model tends, however, to come up short when applied to cases when nature contributes to our well-being by virtue of the religious, political, historical, personal, or mythic meanings it bears. To make sense of such cases, a (...)
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  5.  40
    The Trouble with Environmental Values.Simon P. James - 2016 - Environmental Values 25 (2):131-144.
    If we are to assess whether our attitudes towards nature are morally, aesthetically or in any other way appropriate or inappropriate, then we will need to know what those attitudes are. Drawing on the works of Katie McShane, Alan Holland and Christine Swanton, I challenge the common assumption that to love, respect, honour, cherish or adopt any other sort of pro-attitude towards any natural X simply is to value X in some way and to some degree. Depending on how one (...)
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  6.  80
    Ecosystem Services and the Value of Places.Simon P. James - 2016 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (1):101-113.
    In the US Environmental Protection Agency, the World Wide Fund for Nature and many other environmental organisations, it is standard practice to evaluate particular woods, wetlands and other such places on the basis of the ‘ecosystem services’ they are thought to provide. I argue that this practice cannot account for one important way in which places are of value to human beings. When they play integral roles in our lives, particular places have a kind of value which cannot be adequately (...)
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  7.  11
    The presence of nature: a study in phenomenology and environmental philosophy.Simon P. James - 2009 - New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
    Are any nonhuman animals conscious? Why, if at all, should we strive to conserve natural environments? In what sense are we parts of nature? In this book, Simon James draws on a range of philosophical and literary sources to develop original answers to these and other questions, setting out a refreshingly new approach to environmental philosophy"--Provided by publisher.
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  8.  38
    Finding - and Failing to Find - Meaning in Nature.Simon P. James - 2013 - Environmental Values 22 (5):609-625.
    This paper is about how we should evaluate our tendencies to find - or fail to find - different meanings in the natural world. It has three aims: (1) to show that some virtues and vices can be exhibited in our tendencies to find or to overlook the meanings of natural things, even if it is unclear whether any can only be exhibited in our relations with such things; (2) to categorise some of the relevant virtues and vices; and (3) (...)
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  9.  38
    Madhyamaka, Metaphysical Realism, and the Possibility of an Ancestral World.Simon P. James - 2019 - Philosophy East and West 68 (4):1116-1133.
    It is the evening of January 11, 1951. A. J. Ayer retires to a Parisian bar for a post-lecture drink, where he is joined by Georges Batailles, Maurice MerleauPonty, and the physicist Georges Ambrosino. They argue until 3 a.m. The point at issue: Was there a sun before human beings existed? Ayer says "yes," the other three say "no."1Now imagine that a fifth person joins the debate—a Mādhyamika. She argues that because nothing exists independently of conceptual imputation, since, as she (...)
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  10.  56
    M erleau‐ P onty and metaphysical realism.Simon P. James - 2018 - European Journal of Philosophy 26 (4):1312-1323.
    Global metaphysical antirealism (or “antirealism”) is often thought to entail that the identity of each and every concrete entity in our world ultimately depends on us—on our adoption of certain social and linguistic conventions, for instance, or on our use of certain conceptual schemes. Drawing on the middle‐period works of Maurice Merleau‐Ponty, I contend that metaphysical antirealism entails nothing of the sort. For Merleau‐Ponty, I argue, entities do not ultimately owe their identities to us, even though—as he puts it—their “articulations (...)
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  11.  50
    Protecting Nature for the Sake of Human Beings.Simon P. James - 2015 - Ratio 29 (2):213-227.
    It is often assumed that to say that nature should be protected for the sake of human beings just is to say that it should be protected because it is a means to one or more anthropocentric ends. I argue that this assumption is false. In some contexts, claims that a particular natural X should be protected for our sakes mean that X should be protected, not because it is a means to anthropocentric ends, but because it is part of (...)
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  12.  58
    Human virtues and natural values.Simon P. James - 2006 - Environmental Ethics 28 (4):339-353.
    In several works, Holmes Rolston, III has argued that a satisfactory environmental ethic cannot be built on a virtue ethical foundation. His first argument amounts to the charge that because virtue ethics is by nature “self-centered” or egoistic, it is also inherently “human-centered” and hence ill suited to treating environmental matters. According to his second argument, virtue ethics is perniciously human-centeredsince it “locates” the value of a thing, not in the thing itself, but in the agent who is “ennobled” by (...)
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  13.  38
    (1 other version)Against Holism:Rethinking Buddhist Environmental Ethics.Simon P. James - 2007 - Environmental Values 16 (4):447-461.
    Environmental thinkers sympathetic to Buddhism sometimes reason as follows: (1) A holistic view of the world, according to which humans are regarded as being 'one' with nature, will necessarily engender environmental concern; (2) the Buddhist teaching of 'emptiness' represents such a view; therefore (3) Buddhism is an environmentally-friendly religion. In this paper, I argue that the first premise of this argument is false (a holistic view of the world can be reconciled with a markedly eco-unfriendly attitude) as is the second (...)
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  14.  44
    Suffering and the primacy of virtue.Simon P. James - 2019 - Analysis 79 (4):605-613.
    Some people claim that some instances of suffering are intrinsically bad in an impersonal way. If it were true, that claim might seem to count against virtue ethics and for consequentialism. Drawing on the works of Jason Kawall, Christine Swanton and Nietzsche, I consider some reasons for thinking that it is, however, false. I argue, moreover, that even if it were true, a virtue ethicist could consistently acknowledge its truth.
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  15.  66
    Phenomenology and the Problem of Animal Minds.Simon P. James - 2009 - Environmental Values 18 (1):33 - 49.
    Attempts to determine whether nonhuman animals have minds are often thought to raise a particular sceptical concern; I call it the problem of animal minds. If there are such things as animal minds, the sceptic reasons, they will be private realms to which we humans do not have direct epistemological access. So how could one ever know for certain that animals are not mindless mechanisms? In this paper I use a phenomenological approach to show that this familiar sceptical problem presupposes (...)
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  16. Merleau‐Ponty, Metaphysical Realism and the Natural World1.Simon P. James - 2007 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 15 (4):501 – 519.
    Environmental thinkers often suppose that the natural world (or some parts of it, at least) exists in its own right, independent of human concerns. The arguments developed in this paper suggest that it is possible to do justice to this thought without endorsing some form of metaphysical realism. Thus the early sections look to Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception to develop an anti-realist account of the independent reality of the natural world, one, it is argued, that has certain advantages over the (...)
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  17.  74
    Buddhism and the Ethics of Species Conservation.Simon P. James - 2006 - Environmental Values 15 (1):85 - 97.
    Efforts to conserve endangered species of animal are, in some important respects, at odds with Buddhist ethics. On the one hand, being abstract entities, species cannot suffer, and so cannot be proper objects of compassion or similar moral virtues. On the other, Buddhist commitments to equanimity tend to militate against the idea that the individual members of endangered species have greater value than those of less-threatened ones. This paper suggests that the contribution of Buddhism to the issue of species conservation (...)
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  18.  12
    Zen Buddhism and Environmental Ethics.Simon P. James - 2004 - Routledge.
  19.  33
    “Nothing Truly Wild is Unclean”: Muir, Misanthropy, and the Aesthetics of Dirt.Simon P. James - 2014 - Environmental Ethics 36 (3):357-363.
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  20.  43
    “Thing-Centered” Holism in Buddhism, Heidegger, and Deep Ecology.Simon P. James - 2000 - Environmental Ethics 22 (4):359-375.
    I address the problem of reconciling environmental holism with the intrinsic value of individual beings. Drawing upon Madhyamaka Buddhism, the later philosophy of Martin Heidegger, and deep ecology, I present a distinctly holistic conception of nature that, nevertheless, retains a commitment to the intrinsic worth of individual beings. I conclude with an examination of the practical implications of this “thing-centered holism” for environmental ethics.
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  21.  29
    Cherished Places and Ecosystem Services.Simon P. James - 2013 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 16 (3):264-266.
    Mark Sagoff claims that if we are to explain what moves people to protect the natural world, we will need to refer to their ‘cultural, aesthetic, and moral ties’ to the ‘places they cherish or love...
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  22.  15
    Buddhism, Virtue and Environment.David E. Cooper & Simon P. James - 2005 - Routledge.
    Buddhism, one increasingly hears, is an 'eco-friendly' religion. It is often said that this is because it promotes an 'ecological' view of things, one stressing the essential unity of human beings and the natural world. Buddhism, Virtue and Environment presents a different view. While agreeing that Buddhism is, in many important respects, in tune with environmental concerns, Cooper and James argue that what makes it 'green' is its view of human life. The true connection between the religion and environmental thought (...)
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  23.  43
    (1 other version)An introduction to buddhist ethics by Peter Harvey cambridge university press, 2000, pp. XX + 478.Simon P. James - 2001 - Philosophy 76 (1):158-174.
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  24.  20
    Conflict and Resolution.Simon P. James - 2017 - Environmental Values 26 (5):535-538.
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  25.  67
    Cultural Ecosystem Services: A Critical Assessment.Simon P. James - 2015 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 18 (3):338-350.
    This paper is about the practice of evaluating ecosystems on the basis of the cultural services they provide. My first aim is to assess the various objections that have been made to this practice. My second is to argue that when particular places are integral to people’s lives, their value cannot be adequately conceived in terms of the provision of cultural ecosystem services. It follows, I conclude, that the ecosystem services framework can provide only a very limited account of the (...)
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  26.  38
    Environmental Philosophy: An Introduction.Simon P. James - 2015 - Polity.
    Climate change, habitat loss, rising extinction rates - such problems call for more than just new policies and practices. They raise fundamental questions about the world and our place in it. What, for instance, is the natural world? Do we humans belong to it? Which parts of it are we morally obliged to protect? Drawing on an exceptionally wide range of sources, from virtue ethics to Buddhism, leading environmental philosopher Simon P. James sets out to answer these vitally important questions. (...)
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  27.  99
    For the Sake of a Stone? Inanimate Things and the Demands of Morality.Simon P. James - 2011 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 54 (4):384-397.
    Abstract Everyday inanimate things such as stones, teapots and bicycles are not objects to which moral agents could have direct duties; they do not have moral status. It is usually assumed that there is therefore no reason to think that a morally good person would, on account of her goodness, be disposed to treat them well for their own sakes. I challenge this assumption. I begin by showing that to act for the sake of an entity need not be to (...)
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  28.  16
    Letting Nature Take its Course.Simon P. James - 2016 - Environmental Values 25 (4):381-384.
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  29.  42
    Nature’s Indifference.Simon P. James - 2019 - Environmental Ethics 41 (2):115-128.
    Contrary to what writers such as Hans Jonas and Val Plumwood suggest, much of nature is indifferent to human interests. Mountains, glaciers, sun-baked salt pans—such entities care neither about what interests us humans nor about what is objectively in our interests. It might be hard to see how the property of being indifferent, in this sense, could add value. But it can. For those of us who inhabit highly technological, user-friendly environments, entities such as mountains can have therapeutic value precisely (...)
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  30.  33
    Philistinism and the Preservation of Nature.Simon P. James - 2013 - Philosophy 88 (1):101-114.
    It is clear that natural entities can be preserved – they can be preserved because they can be harmed or destroyed, or in various other ways adversely affected. I argue that in light of the rise of scientism and other forms of philistinism, the political, religious, mythic, personal and historical meanings that people find in those entities can also be preserved. Against those who impugn disciplines such as fine arts, philosophy and sociology, I contend that this sort of preservation requires (...)
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  31.  6
    Book Review: Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism. [REVIEW]Simon P. James - 2001 - Environmental Values 10 (2):278-280.
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