ABSTRACT
Many have concluded that modern society, with its Promethean mind-set, is ecologically unsustainable and morally impoverished. In return, their critics often claim these views are misanthropic and subvert the principles of western civilization. This chapter considers both sides to be more wrong than right. "Deep Ecology" is a term coined by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. Its general perspective also applies to other environmental thinkers who broadly share Naess's view of humanity's proper relationship with the nonhuman world, although arriving there by different ways. "Anthropocentric", or human-centered, ethics argues that value in the natural world originates in the attitudes human beings take toward nature. Most anthropocentric views regard the non human world in instrumental terms. Evolutionary liberal perspectives emphasize that individuals are always embedded in society. Society comprises the independently existing structure that Hayek described as helping constitute the minds. The analysis that has developed in this paper is fundamentally incompatible with the outlooks that characterize this variant of liberal thought.
