Art of noticing : an essay on contemporary ecological writing

• Main Author: West, Rex Alan, 1967-
• Other Authors: Robinson, David
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Ecology > Authorship; Human ecology in literature; Environmental ethics; Environmental protection > Moral and ethical aspects
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37373

A number of thinkers are becoming increasingly persuaded that our anthropocentric view of nature is inadequate, that we need a "new morality" with regard to the environment. In this essay, I argue that an alternative to anthropocentricism is available to us now-and has been since at least 1836. I look at three "checkpoints" in the evolution of environmental theory as proof of this: 1) the publication of Emerson's book Nature, 2) Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, and 3) the contemporary writing of Gretel Ehrlich, Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, and A. R. Ammons. In short, I show that all these writers describe an aesthetic basis with which we may view nature that leads to a system of ethical values. What they advocate is a "moral framework" which I call noticing. My primary thesis is that we don't need a "new morality": we need only turn to the existing one these writers describe-and acknowledge it. === Graduation date: 1992