The Aesthetic Dimension of the
Interrelations between Ecological
Science and Ethics:
The Other Leopoldian Bridge*
Sheila Lintott, Bucknell University
and
Allen Carlson, University of Alberta
* This presentation is based on a plenary address that Lintott and Carlson will give at
the 2011 Cary Conference on Ecology, Philosophy, and Environmental Ethics.
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the
integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise.”
– Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac with Essays on
Conservation from Round River [1949/1953] (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1966), p. 262.
Beauty?
From the perspective of ecological science,
beauty, it is often contended, is subjective and
relatively trivial, whereas integrity and stability
are objective and relatively important.
Considering the role of beauty in an
ecological context
How might the aesthetic dimension serve as a
link between ecological science and ethics?
What is the nature of beauty, this “other
Leopoldian bridge,” and how can it lead us
from ecology to our obligations to preserve?
Aesthetic Appreciation and Preservation
A new conservation acquisition
on the Washington coast
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/washington/misc/art33147
.html?src=news
Leonardo da Vinci
Portrait of Mona Lisa
1503-06 http://www.artchive.com
Nature of Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature
formalistic/
picturesque
relativistic/
postmodern
scientific/cognitivist
Jackson Pollock,
Number 1
1950
http://www.nga.gov
Caravaggio,
The Taking of Christ
1602
http://www.nga.gov
Imagine Two Stands of Trees