Alienation and Nature in Environmental Philosophy Many environmental scientists, scholars and activists characterize our situation as one of alienation from nature, but this notion can easily seem meaningless or irrational. In this book, Simon Hailwood critic- ally analyses the idea of alienation from nature and argues that it can be a useful notion when understood pluralistically. He distinguishes different senses of alienation from nature pertaining to different environmental contexts and concerns, and draws upon a range of philo- sophical and environmental ideas and themes including pragmatism, eco-phenomenology, climate change, ecological justice, Marxism and critical theory. His novel perspective shows that different environmental concerns – both anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric – can dove- tail, rather than compete, with each other, and that our alienation from nature need not be something to be regretted or overcome. His book will interest a broad readership in environmental philosophy and ethics, political philosophy, geography and environmental studies. SIMON HAILWOOD is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Exploring Nozick: Beyond Anarchy, State and Utopia (1996) and How to be a Green Liberal: Nature, V alue and Liberal Philosophy (2004). He is also Managing Editor of the journal Environmental Values. Alienation and Nature in Environmental Philosophy Simon Hailwood University of Liverpool University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107081963 © Simon Hailwood 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Hailwood, Simon A. Alienation and nature in environmental philosophy / Simon Hailwood, University of Liverpool. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-08196-3 (hardback) 1. Human ecology–Philosophy. 2. Environmental sciences–Philosophy. 3. Human beings–Effect of environment on–Philosophy. 4. Alienation (Philosophy) I. Title. GF21.H345 2015 304.201–dc23 2015005649 ISBN 978-1-107-08196-3 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Jan and Verity Contents Acknowledgements page viii Introduction 1 1 Alienations and natures 16 2 Pragmatists and sea squirts 49 3 Landscape 86 4 Nonhuman nature: estrangement 124 5 Nonhuman nature: alienation 155 6 Estrangement from the natural world 185 7 Entailments and entanglements 223 8 Concluding remarks 248 References 253 Index 262 vii Acknowledgements I have given talks on topics covered in this book at universities in Dortmund, Edinburgh, Essen, Lampeter, Lancaster, Manchester, Münster, Newport, Oxford, Reading and Reykjavik. I am grateful to the participants in the various workshops, conferences and seminars involved for their comments. I was greatly helped in developing the ideas in this book by discussions at workshops in Liverpool and Germany on the ‘New Thinking on Alienation’ research networking project that I organized with the assistance of Professors Logi Gunnarsson and Michael Quante (Arts and Humanities Research Council, AH/H013030/1, 2010–11). I am grateful also to colleagues at Liverpool for their helpful comments on my works in progress. I cannot remember now exactly who said what, where and when but I would like to thank the following in particular for their constructive comments and discussion in one or more of the con- texts I have mentioned: Chris Bartley, Isis Brook, Gideon Calder, Clare Carlisle, Stephen Clark, Andrew Dobson, Tim Henning, Daniel Hill, Catriona McKinnon, Thomas Schramme, Kate Soper, Piers Stephens, Alison Stone, Steven Vogel, Daniel Whistler and Marcel Wissenburg. I owe special thanks to my colleague Professor Gillian Howie, who passed away in 2013 after a long struggle with cancer. Gill was inspir- ational in many ways. In relation to this book she convinced me to take more seriously than I had been doing the insights of Hegel and Marx. Had she seen the final result I am sure she would still think I fail to take them sufficiently seriously. I deeply regret the end of that discus- sion and miss her kind and critical presence. I owe special thanks also to Logi Gunnarsson for the discussions we have had since he was a col- league at Liverpool several years ago. A central argument of this book is that, contrary to popular opinion, alienation from nature can be a ‘good thing’, something to be welcomed to some extent in some ways and in some contexts. The initial impetus for this thought was discussion in the light of institutional developments that we could not avoid and could not wholly condemn, yet could not fully identify with either. We thought it not obvious that the resulting state of alienation, if such it was, should viii