Skeptical Environmentalism: The Limits of Philosophy and Science

In Skeptical Environmentalism, Robert Kirkman raises doubts about the speculative tendencies of environmental thought that have been elaborated in recent environmental movements, such as environmental ethics, deep ecology, social ecology, post-modern ecology, eco-feminism, and environmental pragmatism. Drawing on sceptical principles introduced in the work of David Hume, Kirkman takes issue with the central tenets of speculative environmentalism - that the natural world is fundamentally relational, that humans have a moral obligation to protect the order of nature, and that understanding the relationship between nature and humankind holds the key to solving the environmental crisis. Engaging the work of Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Rousseau, and Heidegger, among others, Kirkman's critical gaze reveals the relational worldview as an unreliable basis for knowledge and truth claims, and more dangerously, as a view that often does violence to the intellectual sources from which it takes inspiration.
Exploring themes such as how knowledge about nature is formulated, what characterises an ecological worldview, how environmental worldviews become established, how we find our place in nature, how we create an environmental ethic, and how we bring about change in our environment, Skeptical Environmentalism advocates a shift away from the philosopher's privileged position as truth seeker toward more practical thinking that aims to balance values and worldviews that have come into conflict.