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Rolston, Lonergan, and the Intrinsic Value of Nature
Author(s) -
Nunez Theodore W.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/0384-9694.00007
Subject(s) - philosophy , epistemology , naturalism , transcendental number , value (mathematics) , metaphysics , intrinsic value (animal ethics) , natural (archaeology) , virtue , environmental ethics , archaeology , machine learning , computer science , history
In recent metaethical debate over ways to justify the notion of intrinsic natural value, some neopragmatists have challenged realist conceptions of scientific and moral truth. Holmes Rolston defends a critical‐realist epistemology as the basis for a metaphysics of “projective nature” and a cosmological narrative—both of which set up a historical ontology of objective natural value. Pure ecological science informs the wilderness experience of Rolston's ideal epistemic subject, the “sensitive naturalist.” The author argues that Rolston's account of the relation between knowing and valuing can be clarified and strengthened by appropriating Bernard Lonergan's transcendental method. Conversely, Lonergan's view of moral self‐transcendence can be developed further in light of Rolston's virtue epistemology, which is embodied in the figure of the sensitive naturalist.