Recognizing the Autonomy of Nature: Theory and Practice

Thomas Heyd

December, 2005
Cloth, 232 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13606-8
$48.50 / £33.50

"An excellent introduction to the topic... Highly recommended." — Choice

"I recommend the book to anyone interested in environmental philosophy or concerned with understanding environmental problems." — Steven Vogel, Human Ecology

"Today we humans jeopardize the 'autonomy of nature' as never before in the history of the earth. This anthology confronts that urgent issue head-on, with rigor and intensity. Can and ought we respect and conserve the integrity of nature? Will this complement or compromise our own human welfare? Is human culture replacing autonomous wild nature? Here is a seminal contribution to the most vital question we face." — Holmes Rolston III

, Colorado State University, author of Genes, Genesis, and God: Values and Their Origins in Natural and Human History

"We desperately need a well-reasoned defense of nature for its own sake, as we gallop toward mass species extinction and further environmental decline-and here it is. Each essay in this book shows, in clear language and with concrete examples, why mindless domination and exploitation must give way to respect for the other-than-human world. This is the best book of environmental philosophy and ethics I have read in a long while." — Donald Worster, University of Kansas, author of A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell

About the Author

Thomas Heyd teaches philosophy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He is the coeditor (with John Clegg) of Aesthetics and Rock Art.

top of page