Since aesthetic experience is vital for the protection of nature, I address the relationship between environmental aesthetics and environmentalism. I first review two traditional positions, the picturesque approach and formalism. Some environmentalists fault the modes of aesthetic appreciation associated with these views, charging they are anthropocentric, scenery-obsessed, superficial, subjective, and/or morally vacuous. In light of these apparent failings of traditional aesthetics of nature, I suggest five requirements of environmentalism: that aesthetic appreciation of nature should be acentric, environment-focused, serious, objective and morally engaged. I then examine two contemporary positions concerning appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature, the aesthetics of engagement and scientific cognitivism, assessing each in terms of the requirements of environmentalism.
AndrewsMalcolm1989. The Search for the Picturesque. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
2.
AndrewsMalcolm2007. ‘The view from the road and the picturesque’, in BerleantA. and CarlsonA. (eds.) The Aesthetics of Human Environments.. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press.
3.
BellClive [1913] Art. New York: G. P. Putnam’ Sons, 1958.
4.
BerleantArnold1992. The Aesthetics of Environment. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
5.
BerleantArnold1997. Living in the Landscape: Toward an Aesthetics of Environment. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
6.
BerleantArnold2005. Aesthetics and Environment: Variations on a Theme. Aldershot: Ashgate.
7.
BerleantArnold and CarlsonAllen (eds.) 2007. The Aesthetics of Human Environments.Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press.
8.
BradyEmily1998. ‘Imagination and the aesthetic appreciation of nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism56: 139–147. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
9.
BradyEmily2002. ‘Aesthetic character and aesthetic integrity in environmental conservation’. Environmental Ethics24: 75–91. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
10.
BradyEmily2003. Aesthetics of the Natural Environment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
11.
BrookIsis2008. ‘Wildness in the English garden tradition: A reassessment of the picturesque from environmental philosophy’. Ethics and the Environment13: 105–119.
12.
Callicott, BairdJ.2003. ‘Wetland gloom and wetland glory’. Philosophy and Geography6: 33–45.
13.
Callicott, BairdJ.2008. ‘Leopold's land aesthetic’, in CarlsonA. and LintottS. (eds.), Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism: From Beauty to Duty. New York: Columbia University Press’.
14.
CarlsonAllen1977. ‘On the possibility of quantifying scenic beauty’. Landscape Planning4: 131–172.
15.
CarlsonAllen1979a. ‘Appreciation and the Natural Environment’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism37 (1979): 267–276. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
16.
CarlsonAllen1979b. ‘Formal qualities and the natural environment’. Journal of Aesthetic Education13: 99–114.
17.
CarlsonAllen1981. ‘Nature, aesthetic judgment, and objectivity’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism40: 15–27.
18.
CarlsonAllen1998. ‘Aesthetic appreciation of the natural environment’, in BotzlerR.G. and ArmstrongS.J. (eds.), Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence, Second Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
19.
CarlsonAllen1999. ‘Soiden Ihaileminen: Kosteikkojen Vaikea Kauneus’ (‘Admiring mirelands: The difficult beauty of wetlands’), in Heikkila-Palo (ed.), Suo on Kaunis.Helsinki: Maahenki Oy.
20.
CarlsonAllen2000. Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture. London: Routledge.
21.
CarlsonAllen2006a. ‘Critical notice: Aesthetics and environment’. British Journal of Aesthetics46: 416–27.
22.
CarlsonAllen2006b. “‘We see beauty now where we could not see it before”: Rolston's aesthetics of nature’, in PrestonC. and OuderkirkW. (eds.), Nature, Value, Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III.Dordrecht: Springer.
23.
CarlsonAllen2007. ‘The Requirements for an Adequate Aesthetics of Nature’. Environmental Philosophy4: 1–12.
24.
CarlsonAllen and BerleantArnold (eds.) 2004. The Aesthetics of Natural Environments.Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press.
25.
CarlsonAllen and LintottSheila (eds.) 2008. Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism: From Beauty to Duty.New York: Columbia University Press.
26.
CarrollNoël1993. ‘On being moved by nature: Between religion and natural history’, in KemalS. and GaskellI. (eds.) Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
27.
ConronJohn2000. American Picturesque.University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
28.
CrawfordDonald W.2004. ‘Scenery and the aesthetics of nature’, in CarlsonA. and BerleantA. (eds.), The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press.
29.
DickieGeorge1974. Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
30.
DouglasMarjory Stoneman [1947]. The Everglades: River of Grass. St. Simons Island, GA; Mockingbird Books, 1974.
31.
EatonMarcia1997. ‘The beauty that requires health’, in NassauerJ.I. (ed.) Placing Nature: Culture and Landscape Ecology.. Washington, DC: Island Press. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
32.
EatonMarcia1998. ‘Fact and fiction in the aesthetic appreciation of nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism56: 149–156. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
33.
EllmannRichard (ed.) 1969. The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde. New York: Vintage.
34.
EmersonRalph Waldo1849. Nature: Addresses and Lectures.Boston: J. Munroe. Relevant selections are reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
35.
FudgeRobert2001. ‘Imagination and the science-based aesthetic appreciation of unscenic nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism59: 275–285.
36.
GodlovitchStan1994. ‘Icebreakers: Environmentalism and natural aesthetics’. Journal of Applied Philosophy11: 15–30. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
37.
GodlovitchStan1998. ‘Valuing nature and the autonomy of natural aesthetics’. British Journal of Aesthetics38: 180–197. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
38.
HargroveEugene C.1979. ‘The historical foundations of American environmental attitudes’. Environmental Ethics1: 209–240. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
39.
HepburnRonald1966. ‘Contemporary aesthetics and the neglect of natural beauty’, in WilliamsB. and MontefioreA. (eds.) British Analytical Philosophy.. London: Routledge, Kegan Paul. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
40.
HepburnRonald1993. ‘Trivial and serious in the aesthetic appreciation of nature’, in KemalS. and GaskellI. (eds.) Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
41.
HepburnRonald1996. ‘Landscape and the metaphysical imagination’. Environmental Values5: 191–204.
42.
HepburnRonald2010. ‘The aesthetics of sky and space’. Environmental Values19: 273–288.
43.
HettingerNed2005. ‘Allen Carlson's environmental aesthetics and the protection of the environment’. Environmental Ethics27: 57–76.
44.
HettingerNed2008. ‘Objectivity in environmental aesthetics and environmental protection’, in CarlsonA. and LintottS. (eds.), Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism: From Beauty to Duty. New York: Columbia University Press.
45.
HeydThomas2001. ‘Aesthetic appreciation and the many stories about nature’. British Journal of Aesthetics41: 125–137. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
46.
HippleWalter J.Jr.1957. The Beautiful, the Sublime and the Picturesque in Eighteenth-Century British Aesthetic Theory. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
47.
HusseyChristopher1927. The Picturesque: Studies in a Point of View.London: G. P. Putnam's.
48.
LeddyThomas2005. ‘A defense of arts-based appreciation of nature’. Environmental Ethics27: 299–315.
49.
LeopoldAldo [1949, 1952]. A Sand County Almanac with Essays on Conservation from Round River. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966. Relevant selections are reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
50.
LintottSheila2006. ‘Toward eco-friendly aesthetics’. Environmental Ethics28: 57–76. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
51.
Loftis, RobertJ.2003. ‘Three problems for the aesthetic foundations of environmental ethics’. Philosophy in the Contemporary World10: 41–50.
52.
MatthewsPatricia2002. ‘Scientific knowledge and the aesthetic appreciation of nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism60: 37–48. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
53.
MooreRonald2008. Natural Beauty: A Theory of Aesthetics Beyond the Arts. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press.
54.
MuirJohn1894. ‘A View of the High Sierra’, in The Mountains of California.New York: Century Company. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
55.
NagelThomas1986. The View from Nowhere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
56.
NassauerJane Iverson1997. ‘Cultural sustainability: aligning aesthetics and ecology’, in NassauerJ. I. (ed.) Placing Nature: Culture and Landscape Ecology.. Washington, DC: Island Press. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
57.
ParsonsGlenn2004. ‘Natural functions and the aesthetic appreciation of inorganic nature’. British Journal of Aesthetics44: 44–56.
58.
ParsonsGlenn2006. ‘Freedom and objectivity in the aesthetic appreciation of nature’. British Journal of Aesthetics46: 17–37.
59.
ParsonsGlenn2008. Aesthetics and Nature. London: Continuum.
60.
ParsonsGlenn and CarlsonAllen2004. ‘New formalism and the aesthetic appreciation of nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism62: 363–376.
61.
ReesRonald1975. ‘The taste for mountain scenery’. History Today25: 305–312.
62.
RolstonHolmesIII1998. ‘Aesthetic experience in forests’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism56: 157–166. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
63.
RolstonHolmesIII2000. ‘Aesthetics in the swamps’. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine43: 584–597.
64.
RolstonHolmesIII2002. ‘From beauty to duty: aesthetics of nature and environmental ethics’, in BerleantA. (ed.), Environment and the Arts: Perspectives on Environmental Aesthetics. Aldershot: Ashgate. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
65.
SagoffMark1974. ‘On preserving the natural environment’. Yale Law Journal84: 205–267.
66.
SaitoYuriko1998a. ‘Appreciating nature on its own terms’. Environmental Ethics20: 135–149. Reprinted in Carlson and Berleant 2004.
67.
SaitoYuriko1998b. ‘The aesthetics of unscenic nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism56: 101–111. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
68.
SaitoYuriko2007. ‘The role of aesthetics in civic environmentalism’, in BerleantA. and CarlsonA. (eds.) The Aesthetics of Human Environments.. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press.
69.
SaitoYuriko2010. ‘Future directions for environmental aesthetics’. Environmental Values19: 373–391.
70.
SepänmaaYrjö1986. The Beauty of Environment: A General Model for Environmental AestheticsHelsinki: Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, 1986. Second Edition, Denton, TX: Environmental Ethics Books, 1993.
71.
SteckerRobert1997. ‘The correct and the appropriate in the appreciation of nature’. British Journal of Aesthetics37: 393–402.
72.
ThompsonJanna1995. ‘Aesthetics and the value of nature’. Environmental Ethics17: 291–305. Reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
73.
ThoreauDavid Henry1862. ‘Walking’. Atlantic Monthly9, no. 56 (June). Relevant selections are reprinted in Carlson and Lintott 2008.
74.
WaltonKendall1970. ‘Categories of art’. Philosophical Review79: 334–367.
75.
ZangwillNick2001. ‘Formal natural beauty’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society101: 209–224.
76.
ZangwillNick2005. ‘In defence of extreme formalism about inorganic nature: Reply to Parsons’. British Journal of Aesthetics45: 185–191.
