Wild thoughts: A Deconstructive environmental ethics?

Briggs, R. (2001) Wild thoughts: A Deconstructive environmental ethics? Environmental Ethics, 23 (2). pp. 115-134.

Abstract

Although environmental ethics has become more familiar and comfortable with the work of postmodernism, "deconstruction" in particular continues to be depicted as "destructive" and "nihilistic." A close examination of some specific works of deconstruction, however, shows that, far from denying responsibilities to the environment, deconstruction seeks to affirm a radical obligation toward the "other." Because this possibility is habitually ruled out by denunciations of deconstruction's imputed relativism, I begin with a dramatized account of the possible reception of deconstruction within environmental ethics in order to stage the ethical implications of modes of criticism. I then discuss specific parallels between the work of deconstruction and that of environmental ethics, and suggest that adeconstructive spirit is at the heart of environmental philosophy's recent - and most important - work on the question of "universal consideration.".

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Arts
Publisher:	Environmental Philosophy Inc
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/34874

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