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“Nothing Truly Wild is Unclean”: Muir, Misanthropy, and the Aesthetics of Dirt

James, Simon P.

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Abstract

For John Muir, nothing truly wild is unclean. Dirtiness is the result of human influence. Muir’s view finds an echo in the works of those writers, such as Robinson Jeffers, who regard urban environments as wild places that have, over time, become increasingly polluted by human beings and their works. It is clear that such misanthropic views can be criticized on moral grounds; however, they deserve to be criticized on aesthetic grounds, too. To adapt the view of Yuriko Saito, they indicate a failure to appreciate the human world on its own terms.

Citation

James, S. P. (2014). “Nothing Truly Wild is Unclean”: Muir, Misanthropy, and the Aesthetics of Dirt. Environmental Ethics, 36(3), 357-363. https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics201436335

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Sep 1, 2014
Deposit Date Nov 26, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Environmental Ethics
Print ISSN 0163-4275
Electronic ISSN 2153-7895
Publisher Philosophy Documentation Center
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 36
Issue 3
Pages 357-363
DOI https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics201436335

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