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Kantian Ethics and Environmental PhilosophyPursuing the Good in an Age of Crisis

By Fiacha D. Heneghan

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£19.99

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About this book

The most sustained analysis of Kant’s thinking on obligations and desires, connecting his readings of ancient philosophy with pressing questions in contemporary environmental philosophy
  • Critically reviews attempts in moral philosophy to deny the reality of conflicts between moral obligation and material desire
  • Analyses these conflicts from a Kantian perspective
  • Highlights the relevance of these conflicts in the context of environmental crisis
Human beings have desires and obligations. A Kantian framework reveals the morally significant conflict between these two. In the context of looming environmental crises of our own making, we may be forced in many respects to choose between environmental obligations and the pursuit of our well-being. Kantian Ethics and Environmental Philosophy begins by examining a tendency in philosophical thought as old as the Ancient Greeks: the temptation to minimize or even theorize away such conflicts. By contrast, this book argues that acknowledging the reality of the choices ahead is a necessary first step to forming a coherent and rational hope for a better world.

Reviews

Through a meticulous engagement with Kant’s writings on hope and the highest good, Heneghan develops a notion of radical hope through which philosophy becomes more than a consolation for the existence of suffering, but also an ethical approach to contemporary moral crises with seemingly impossible solutions, such as looming environmental catastrophe.
Heneghan develops a novel approach to addressing the threats posed by climate change through a masterful application of Kant’s analysis of the highest good. As such, he makes a significant contribution to both Kant scholarship and environmental philosophy in view of one of the most pressing issues of our time.
Table of contents

Abbreviations for Primary Sources

Introduction: Conscience, the Good and Philosophical Consolations

1. Optimism, Epicureanism and the Lisbon Earthquake

2. Kant’s Commonsense Critique of Stoic and Epicurean Ethics

3. The Problem of the Highest good

4. Radical Hope

Conclusion: The Limits of Hopeful Pessimism

Bibliography

About the author

Fiacha D. Heneghan

Fiacha D. Heneghan is an independent scholar and tutor, who completed his PhD at Vanderbilt University in 2020. He has published journal articles in Philosophy Today, Southwest Philosophy Review and Idealistic Studies. He has published 3 book chapters. For four years he was Research Assistant to Julian Wuerth for The Cambridge Kant Lexicon.

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