Natural Meanings and Cultural Values

James, Simon P.

doi:10.5840/enviroethics20194112

Natural Meanings and Cultural Values

James, Simon P.

Authors

Professor Simon James s.p.james@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

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 new model of nature’s value is needed, one that registers the fact that nature can have constitutive value for us on account of the role it plays in certain meaningful wholes, such as a person’s sense of who he or she is.

Citation

James, S. P. (2019). Natural Meanings and Cultural Values. Environmental Ethics, 41(1), 3-16. https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics20194112

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 6, 2019
Online Publication Date	Apr 30, 2019
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2019
Deposit Date	Apr 3, 2019
Publicly Available Date	Nov 7, 2019
Journal	Environmental Ethics
Print ISSN	0163-4275
Electronic ISSN	2153-7895
Publisher	Philosophy Documentation Center
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	41
Issue	1
Pages	3-16
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics20194112