Towards the development of a Kantian environmental ethic

This thesis is a response to Aldo Leopold\u27s 1949 call for a new, wholistic environmental ethic. Leopold\u27s call stemmed from his concern over the increasing degradation of the environment as a result of a utilitarian approach which judges nature as good only insofar as it is good for human economic and recreational benefit. This thesis is aimed at the development of a wholistic, non-utilitarian environmental ethic grounded in the philosophy. of Immanuel Kant. The thesis begins with a brief review of the utilitarian environmental ethic which Leopold opposed and some of the consequences it has wrought in the natural world. It then examines some of the alternative environmental ethics which have already been proposed and their shortcomings. These new, alternative environmental ethics generally fall into one of three categories: neoutilitarianism, animal rights, and eco-feminism. I next undertake an examination of Immanuel Kant\u27s philosophy as it concerns theory of knowledge, moral theory, teleological judgments of nature, and aesthetic judgment. Kant\u27s theory of knowledge leads us to a view of nature, as an organized system, and human beings, as distinct individuals, as mutually dependent. Kant\u27s moral theory argues that human biological life ought to be subordinated to human moral life. Also Kant\u27s moral theory, applied to private action, requires a critical thought process. This same critical thought process is engendered when his moral theory is applied to public action. Kant\u27s theory of teleological judgment regarding nature leads us to a view of nature as a system of ends directed towards the establishment of a realm of ends, a moral world community. Kant\u27s aesthetic theory saves nature, as natural beauty, from appropriative human claims. Just as our sensible nature ought to be subordinate to our moral nature, so too our approach to nature as useful ought to be subordinate to our approach to nature as beautiful. Kantian philosophy results in a number of duties on the part of human beings as moral beings towards nature. We have a duty to preserve nature as a changing, balanced diversity~ We have a duty to treat the non-human parts of nature as components of a systemic whole. How these duties ought to be fulfilled will be affected by contextual factors, and ought to be decided through public discourse