| 1 Radical environmentalism avoids entanglement with scientific modes of thought and the falsely conceived model of neutral reason on which it is said to rest. It thereby avoids the pitfalls of a naïve naturalism, which is reductivist and regularly entwined in reactionary politics. |
| 2 It avoids the model of moral thought as the rational exposition and application of falsely conceived universal principles to particular situations. Instead, it focuses upon the 'non-rational' elements in human moral reactions, such as love of a particular place, and emphasizes the importance of responding to the objects of moral concern in all their context-bound particularity. |
| 3 It rejects the idea of authority in all its forms - moral, legal, political, religious. These sources of 'law' are all regarded as coercive and harmful impositions of the interests of the dominant members of hierarchically organized groups upon both human and non-human victims. Thus, it espouses antinomianism (anti-law) and, in political terms, favours direct participation in anarchistic structures. |
We have seen in the previous chapter the way in which Smith argues for (1). He argues for point (3) in chapter 5 of his book. We need not spend too much time examining those arguments, the discussion of which would take us too far from the direct concerns of this book. They are largely a matter of noting the parallels
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Publication information:
Book title: A Theory of Ecological Justice.
Contributors: Brian Baxter - Author.
Publisher: Routledge.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 2004.
Page number: 28.
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