Philosophical Issues in Ecology: Recent Trends and Future Directions

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Philosophy of ecology has been slow to become established as an area of philosophical interest, but it is now receiving considerable attention. This area holds great promise for the advancement of both ecology and the philosophy of science. Insights from the philosophy of science can advance ecology in a number of ways. For example, philosophy can assist with the development of improved models of ecological hypothesis testing and theory choice. Philosophy can also help ecologists understand the role and limitations of mathematical models in ecology. On the other side, philosophy of science will be advanced by having ecological case studies as part of the stock of examples. Ecological case studies can shed light on old philosophical topics as well as raise novel issues for the philosophy of science. For example, understanding theoretical terms such as "biodiversity" is important for scientific reasons, but such terms also carry political importance. Formulating appropriate definitions for such terms is thus not a purely scientific matter, and this may prompt a reevaluation of philosophical accounts of defining theoretical terms. We consider some of the topics currently receiving attention in the philosophy of ecology and other topics in need of attention. Our aim is to prompt further exchange between ecology and philosophy of science and to help set the agenda for future work in the philosophy of ecology. The topics covered include: the role of mathematical models, environmental problem formulation, biodiversity, and environmental ethics.

The Interacting Axes of Environmental, Health, and Social Justice Cumulative Impacts: A Case Study of the Blueberry River First Nations

“…We rely on a more traditional philosophical analysis to highlight key items for discussion and to suggest ways to frame this issue that can be used to guide further investigations, which is found in the fourth Discussion and fifth Conclusion Sections. Our framework for philosophical analysis is drawn from contemporary discussion in Philosophy of Science, including discussions of mechanisms as a form of scientific explanation [10,11,12,13], discussions of philosophy of ecosystems [14,15,16], and discussions of values in science [17,18]. This approach is easily applied to environmental issues such as ecosystem harm, and to the ways in which differences between different indicator methodologies are value-laden in their effects, since it was developed to be applied to exactly those kinds of cases.…”

Finding Common Ground for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

“…But this need not be the case. Although we will not address the ethical and philosophical debates surrounding intrinsic value covered elsewhere , Colyvan et al 2009), it appears that it is often the complexity of intrinsic and instrumental values-and the narrow interpretations of the latter-that makes the common ground they share appear smaller than it actually is. For example, although the concept of biodiversity emerges from an intrinsic context, the conservation of biodiversity is usually motivated by a wide variety of human values and choices, including existence value, which is the benefit that people receive from knowing a species, habitat, or landscape-or, in fact, all of biodiversity-exists.…”

“…At a deeper level, the underlying motivations for biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services are often associated with what appear to be fundamentally different value systems (Colyvan et al 2009). Biodiversity conservation is often associated with a biocentric perspective that assigns an intrinsic value to all life on Earth (Norton 1986, Rolston 1988).…”

Agent-based Models as Fictive Instantiations of Ecological Processes

“…Agent-based simulation seems to be one way (Colyvan et al 2009;Caprio et al 2008). The history of computer simulation in ecology has been controversial; even so, its importance as a tool for understanding ecological complexity cannot be understated.…”