Natural Meanings and Cultural Values

James, Simon P.

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
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1304703