From Beauty to Duty: Aesthetics of Nature and Env Ethics
—Berleant, Environment & the Arts, 2002

"From Beauty to Duty: Aesthetics of Nature and Environmental Ethics," in Arnold Berleant, ed., Environment and the Arts: Perspectives on Environmental Aesthetics (Aldershot, Hampshire and Burlington, VT: UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2002), pages 127-141. Online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/37181

In both environmental aesthetics and environmental ethics something of value is at stake. These are often connected: If beauty, then: duty. But not all duties are tied to beauties. Other premises, such as resource use or respect for life, might better yield duties. Human aesthetic capacities depend on aesthetic properties of value. Wildlife admirers focus on animal excellences. Biotic communities, ecosystems, have their integrities.

Reprinted in Allen Carlson and Sheila Lintott, eds., Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), pages 325-338.