The Philosophy of Community and the Environmental Ethic

The “specialness” of our involvements in environmental organizations results from our pursuit of collective imperfect duty. This is reviewed here where these involvements are explained as necessary for society’s processes of environmental decisions to be “fair and reasoned.” As inputs to these processes, the inspirational aspects of the “sacredness of nature,” as expressed in the classic American environmental literature of Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, Leopold, and Douglas, are examined as a motivating foundation for natural preservation in the public domain. These inspirational and sacred aspects support the notion of the “intrinsic value of nature.” Our vision of what could be for our restored environmental assets, as offered by our environmental organizations and government agencies, is the key element of our reasoned collective discourse that ultimately leads to restorations.