A Kind of Pantheism (eBook)

Escape from Cosmic Pessimism and the Quest for a Biocentric Ethic

Gregory Novak (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
407 Seiten
Academica Press (Verlag)
978-1-68053-560-0 (ISBN)

Infos

A Kind of Pantheism: Escape from Cosmic Pessimism and the Quest for a Biocentric Ethic explores how such nineteenth-century transcendentalists as Henry David Thoreau and John Muir advanced a biocentric ethic that recognized the intrinsic worth of both plants and animals. This ethic required a pantheistic cosmology to be coherent, however. As science progressed, with developments in evolutionary biology and ecology, the paths of environmental ethics and animal rights diverged. But at the turn of the twentieth century, the nature writer Joseph Wood Krutch, inspired by quantum theory, provided a crucial link that reconnected these fieldsa contribution often overlooked even by his own biographers. This book traces the historical development of humanitys attitudes toward the non-human world, highlighting the influence of philosophical, religious, and scientific ideas. In addition to Krutch, it brings attention to such lesser-known figures as Henry Stephens Salt and John Howard Moore, emphasizing their roles in shaping biocentric thought. Ultimately, the book argues that animal rights and environmental ethics are two expressions of the same biocentric outlook. By focusing on Krutchs unique contribution, the book offers a way for secular thinkers to reclaim a pantheistic ethic. In the process, A Kind of Pantheism solves the problem of cosmic pessimismwhich postulates the cold and meaningless universe implied by modern science, a concept that often undercuts the very ethic it suggests. Through the process of freeinquiry, new answers emerge.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.1.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Social Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Transcendentalism, Idealism, Ethics, Environmentalism, Animal Rights, Biocentrism, Joseph Wood Krutch, Henry Stephens Salt, John Howard Moore
• ISBN-10: 1-68053-560-9 / 1680535609
• ISBN-13: 978-1-68053-560-0 / 9781680535600