Author: Lo, Y.S.

Source: Environmental Values, Volume 10, Number 1, 1 February 2001 , pp. 113-123(11)

Publisher: White Horse Press

Abstract:

In this article I argue that textual evidence from David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature does not support J. Baird Callicott's professedly Humean yet holistic environmental ethic, which understands the community (e.g., the biotic community) as a 'metaorganismic' entity 'over and above' its individual members. Based on Hume's reductionist account of the mind and his assimilation of the metaphysical nature of the mind to that of the community, I also argue that a Humean account of the community should be likewise reductionist. My conclusion is that Callicott's anti-reductionist holism is at least foreign to, and at worst incompatible with, Hume's philosophy.

Keywords: Hume; Calicott; holism; community; individual; sympathy

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2001-02-01

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