Nature's Indifference

James, Simon P.

doi:10.5840/enviroethics201941212

Nature's Indifference

James, Simon P.

Authors

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

Abstract

Contrary to what writers such as Hans Jonas and Val Plumwood suggest, much of nature is indifferent to human interests. Mountains, glaciers, sun-baked salt pans—such entities care neither about what interests us humans nor about what is objectively in our interests. It might be hard to see how the property of being indifferent, in this sense, could add value. But it can. For those of us who inhabit highly technological, user-friendly environments, entities such as mountains can have therapeutic value precisely because they so obviously do not care about what matters to us.

Citation

James, S. P. (2019). Nature's Indifference. Environmental Ethics, 41(2), 115-128. https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics201941212

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Apr 1, 2019
Deposit Date	Jan 16, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Jun 4, 2020
Journal	Environmental Ethics
Print ISSN	0163-4275
Electronic ISSN	2153-7895
Publisher	Philosophy Documentation Center
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	41
Issue	2
Pages	115-128
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics201941212