Year of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Philosophy

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

Women, Gender, Sexuality, & Disabilities Studies

Department or School/College

Department of Philosophy

Committee Chair

Deborah Slicer

Commitee Members

Christopher Preston, Elizabeth Hubble

Keywords

feminist philosophy, experience, rationalism, body, gender, strategic essentialism

Subject Categories

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Philosophy

Abstract

Through this project, I demonstrate how professional environmental ethics is constrained by, what I call, a rationalist bias and I offer a different approach to environmental questions in the face of this observation. Intellectual life depends on material conditions and our necessary physical ties to Earth. I suggest that an emphasis on our physical connections with the planet can benefit professional environmental ethics. I draw from some feminist understandings to discuss the advantages of a professional environmental ethics that respects and integrates experiences outside of rational deliberation. I attempt to bring my discussion of experience, environmental ethics, and some feminist strategies into the real world by looking for these themes in the practices of the Environmental Health Movement and a local organization. I explain how these examples might hold lessons for professional environmental ethics in terms of adapting practices which incorporate extra-rational experience into ethical thinking. A significant overarching goal of this project is to gesture at the importance of diversity in doing good philosophical work.

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© Copyright 2016 Christina Bovinette