The Face of Nature: Environmental Ethics and the Boundaries of Contemporary Social Theory

Social and cultural theorists readily deconstruct what they regard (with some justification) as the naturalistic pretensions of environmental ethics. However, despite innovative attempts to incorporate environmentalism's values into theoretical frameworks as varied as those of Habermas and Foucault, contemporary social theory has often failed to reflect on the disciplinary limitations of its own critique. To the extent that it poses a fundamental challenge to both anthropocentrism and a sociological reduction of ethical values environmental ethics not only re-evaluates our relations with nature but may also be in the process of engendering a more reflexive sociology.

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