Graduates in Environmental Ethics

The Master of Arts in Environmental Ethics with a Concentration in Environmental Ethics at the University of North Texas was approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in August 1992. At that time there were a number of students pursuing studies in environmental ethics through interdisciplinary studies. Although students continue to enroll for the M.S.I.S., more students are now in the M.A. program than in the interdisciplinary program. Students in the M.A. program are usually planning to enter into a Ph.D. program. Students in interdisciplinary studies are usually preparing for nonacademic careers. However, some have gone in different directions.

Thesis Option

• MICHAEL W. ROBINSON, The Rhetoric of Ecofeminism: A Postmodern Inquiry. Master of Arts (Philosophy), May 1993, 118 pp., works cited, 99 titles.
  Ecofeminism is a mixture of two important contemporary schools of thought; feminism and ecology. The rhetoric generated from ecofeminism focuses on language, on its potential to reconstruct deeply embedded attitudes and belifes. Thus, ecofeminists attempt to transform society through the redescription and redefinition of modern concepts into postmodern concepts. The rhetoric of ecofeminism, set in postmodern context, is a fusion of substantive and stylistic features that simultaneously deconstruct patriarchal structures of exploitation and domination and reconstruct lateral-collaborative structures of cooperation and liberation. In short, ecofeminist rhetoric portends a persuasive transformation of the social-natural conditions of existence.

  Committee: Max Oelschlaeger, Major Professor,Eugene C. Hargrove, and Scott Simpkins (English). Robinson is now teaching philosophy at a community college in Houston, Texas.

• ROBERT L. HOOD, Discursive Horizons of Human Identity and Wilderness in Postmodern Environmental Ethics: A Case Study of the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas Master of Arts (Philosophy), May 1993, 197 pp., 5 illustrations, bib., 179 titles.
  Using a genealogy of the narratives of the Guadalupes, I explore three moral identities. The Mescalero Apache exist as caretakers of sacred space. Spanish and Anglo settlers exist as conquerors of a hostile land. The park service exists as captives, imprisoned in the belief that economic justifications can protect the intrinsic value of wilderness. The narrative shift from oreal to abstract text-based culture entails a shift from intrinsic to instrumental valuation. I conclude that interpretation of narratives, such as those of the Guadalupes, is not by itself a sufficient condition for change. Interpretation is, however, a necessary condition for expanding the cultural conversation beyond merely instrumental justifications to include caring for wilderness's intrinsic values.

  Committee: Max Oelschlaeger, Major Professor, Eugene C. Hargrove, and George A. James. Hood was the first recipient of the REAL Fellowship in summer 1992. He has received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Bowling Green State University. He is now an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the web administrator for the International Society for Environmental Ethics Syllabus Project, which is now at MTSU.

• STEVEN WINDHAGER, Rediscovering Context: An Assessment of the Ability of Ecological Restoration to Recontextualize Culture. Master of Arts (Philosophy), August 1994, 86 pp., bibliography, 94 titles.
  Ecological restoration is a science which abandons some of the assumptions of classical science, specifically those that serve to separate humans from nature. Restoration emphasizes the importance of all dimensions of experience. Because of this, restoration is more than merely a product. It can be better conceptualized as a tripartite undertaking made up of a process, a product, and an affective dimension. As a process, restoration is the interaction of active knowers with dynamic systems. The product of the restoration process is a healthy and sustainable community. The affective dimension of restoration recreates human reations with the world through the concepts of care and responsibility. While much as been written on ecological restoration, few if any of the critics of restoration have considered all three of these aspects. Reinterpreting restoration in this light reveals new dimensions of value which are centered on the experience of local communities.

  Committee: Max Oelschlaeger, Major Professor, Pete A. Y. Gunter and Eugene C. Hargrove.

  In summer 1999, Windhager completed work for the Ph.D. in the UNT Environmental Science Program. In August 1999 he began work as the Director of the Center for Landscape Restoration at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. Windhager was the REAL Fellow in spring 1994. He is the founder and fisrst president of the Texas Society for Ecological Restoration. He can be reached at stevew@wildflower.org

• PAUL A. HAUGHT, Ecosystem Integrity and Its Value for Environmental Ethics. Master of Arts (Philosophy), May 1996, 159 pp., 1 illustration, bibliography, 42 titles.
  Of the primary aims of environmental ethics, there are few that are more crucial than the search for and defense of values capable of sustaining protection of the natural world. Recent discussion has shown ecosystem integrity to be a viable candidate for such a value. However, the successful defense of ecosystem integrity is plagued by the belief that ecological science can establish a place for normative values in nature. This belief is misguided. For ecosystem integrity to gain normative status, it must be articulated within the vocabulary of ethics and not ecological science. Ecosystem integrity, unlike the hull integrity of a ship, more closely resembles another ethical concept, moral integrity, which requires the heuristic framework of narrative mode for the expression of its normative value.

  Committee: Eugene C. Hargrove, Major Professor, Max Oelschlaeger, and Pete A. Y. Gunter. Haught is currently working toward his Ph.D. in philosophy at Tulane University. Haught was the REAL Fellow in fall 1994.

• TYLER J. VEAK, Entering the Circle: The Only Viable Hermeneutic for a Biblical Response to Ecocrisis. Master of Arts (Philosophy), August 1997, 68 pp., 1 table, references, 42 titles.
  A paradox exists in attempting to resolve ecocrisis: awareness of ecological concerns is growing but the crisis continues to escalate. John Firor, a well-known scientist, suggests that to resolve the paradox and hence ecocrisis we need an altennative definition of "human beingness"--that is, a human ontology. I concur with Firor, in that humans must see themselves differently, if we are to resolve ecocrisis. However, I argue through the ontology and hermeneutic Of Hans-Georg Gadamer (i.e., that we are embedded in language in tradition, in history that we must look to the "Codes" by which our culture is defined--the Bible being the primary text, or "Great Code"--for alternative definition. And that, based on Gadamers ontology, the most viable hermeneutic for addressing ecocrisis is the methodology of the "hermeneutic circle" as developed by liberation thought.

  Committee: Max Oelschlaeger, Major Professor, Eugene C. Hargrove, and J. Baird Callicott. Veak is in the Ph.D. program in science and technology studies at Virginia Tech University. Veak was the recipient of the REAL Fellowship in fall 1996.

• JEFFREY P. GOINS, Expendable Creation: Classical Pentecostalism and Environmental Disregard. Master of Arts (Philosophy), December, 1997, 93 pp., references, 92 titles.
  Whereas the ecological crisis has elicited a response from many quarters of American Christianity, classical (or denominational) Pentecostals have expressed almost no concern about environmental problems. The reasons for their disregard of the environment lie in the Pentecostal worldview which finds expression in their: (1) tradition; (2) view of human and natural history (3) common theological beliefs; and (4) scriptural interpretation. All these aspects of Pentecostalism emphasize and value the supernatural--conversely viewing nature as subordinate, dependent and temporary. Therefore, the ecocrisis is not problematic because, for Pentecostals, the natural environment is: of only relative value; must serve the divine plan; and will soon be destroyed and replaced. Furthermore, Pentecostals are likely to continue their environmental disregard, since the supematuralism which spawns it is key to Pentecostal identity.

  Committee: George A. James, Major Professor, Joe E. Barnhart, and Pete A. Y. Gunter. Goins is in the Ph.D. program in philosophy at Marquette University.

• CHAONE MALLORY, Toward an Ecofeminist Environmental Jurisprudence: Nature, Gender, and Law. Master of Arts (Philosophy), August, 1999, 101 pp., 50 titles.
  The purpose of the thesis is to develop a legal theory which refelects the insights of feminism and environmental philosophy. I argue that human beings are not ontologically separate, but are embedded in webs of relationality with natural others, and that the law ought to take this into account. My primary purposes are to 1) delineate the ways in which institutions of modernity (such as law and science) have precipitated ecosocial crisis through the attempt to dialectically enforce mastery and control over nature and women; and 2) explore alternate political forms and ontologies which challenge the classical liberalist view of the (human) individual as a radically isolated, discrete, autonomous being. The overarching theme of my thesis is the way in which law functions as a narrative that can both hinder and enhance the promotion of ecological ideas in society, and how ecofeminism can contribute to the transformative projects of both environmental philosophy and feminist law.

  Committee: Max Oelschlaeger, Major Professor, Eugene C. Hargrove, and J. Baird Callicott. Mallory is now pursuing Ph.D. work in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Oregon.

• TAMI CORDELL, Wilderness Women: Embodiment in Nature. Master of Arts (Philosophy), August 2000, 65 pp., 26 titles.
  Through wilderness sport women find equal footing with their male counterparts that allows them to be seen equally and see themselves equally capable athletes in a realm historically dominated by men. Virginia Woolf makes clear in her book A Room of One's Own that "[A] woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write. . . ." This book plays a significant role in reflecting the ideology of contemporary liberal feminism. Woolf was correct in her statement that money is necessary for women to write, and this extends to all endeavors by women, including sport. Certainly women have been oppressed in the area of sport, but their oppression is inadequately surmised when restricted to the tanglible aspects such as money and equipment. The domination of women by men cannot be limited to the physical undertakings of each, but exists in the conceptual ieal of what it is to be a human and how that is expressed through our roles and participation in this world. My endeavor is to explore territory that has traditionally been masculine and show sport as the domain of no single gender, but a field of simplicity and cooperation by both men and women. Moreover, sport can be the ideal expression of unfettered social relations and a start o newly conceptualizing the world.

  Committee: Eugene C. Hargrove, Major Professor, Irene Klaver, and J. Baird Callicott. Cordell is doing Ph.D. work in the Environmental Science Program at the University of North Texas. She was the REAL Fellow in fall 1999.

• SUE (VIRGINIA M.) KANE, Taoism and Contemporary Environmental Literature. Master of Arts (Philosophy), December 2001, 99 pp., references, 63 titles.
  This thesis encompasses a survey of contemporary environmental literature (1970¹s to the present) as it relates to the tenets of Taoist literature, specifically the Chuang Tzu and the Tao te Ching. The thesis also presents and evaluates pertinent criticisms concerning the practice of relating modern environmental problems to ancient Chinese philosophy. The thesis contains a preface that describes the historic roots of Taoism as well as an explanation of the Chinese terminology in the paper. The environmental literature is divided into three major groups and discussed in the three chapters of the paper. The three groups include mainstream environmentalists, deep ecology, and ecofeminism.

  Committee: George A. James, Major Professor, Eugene C. Hargrove, and J. Baird Callicott. Kane plans to teach philosophy in a community college.

• NATHAN DINNEEN, Ranges of Consideration: Crossing the Fields of Ecology, Philosophy and Science Studies. Master of Arts (Philosophy), December 2002, 113 pp., references, 45 titles.
  Environmental issues are often complex with many different constituents operating according to a broad range of communication techniques. In order to foster negotiations, different perspectives need to be articulated in lucid ways sensitive to various viewpoints and circumstances. In my thesis I investigate how certain approaches to environmental discourse effect dialogue and negotiation. My first two chapters focus on environmental problems surrounding rangeland ecology along the U.S./Mexico border; whereas the last two chapters explore more theoretical conflicts concerning the philosophy of nature. Throughout the thesis I show the significance of nonhumans (prairie dogs, cattle, biological assessment sheets, environmental laws, etc.) in the human community. Only by considering the roles of nonhumans do we broaden and enrich the conversation between ourselves concerning environmental issues.

  Committee: Irene Klaver, Major Professor, J. Baird Callicott and Pete A. Y. Gunter. Dinneen was the REAL Fellow in spring 2002. He plans to enter a Ph.D. program in philosophy, preferably in the Chicago area.

• MITSUYO TOYODA, Approaches to Nature Aesthetics: East Meets West. Master of Arts (Philosophy), December 2002, 85 pp., references, 18 titles.
  Nature aesthetics is examined as an approach to environmental ethics. The characteristics of proper nature appreciation show that every landscape can be appreciated impartially in light of the dynamic processes of nature. However, it is often claimed that natural beauty decreases if humans interfere with nature. This claim leads to the separation of human culture and nature, and limits the number of landscapes which can be protected in terms of aesthetic value. As a solution to this separation, a non-dualistic Japanese aesthetics is examined as a basis for the achievement of the coexistence of culture and nature. Ecological interrelationships between human culture and nature are possible by means of an aesthetic consciousness in terms of non-hierarchical attitudes.

  Committee: Eugene C. Hargrove, Major Professor, George A. James, and J. Baird Callicott. Toyoda was the REAL Fellow in fall 2002. She is currently doing research on biological and physical features of Japanese rivers and their cultural and historical connections with local people in connection with an effort to launch environment education projects for the public. She plans to enter a Ph.D. program in philosophy in the near future.

• MARC J. V. CORBEIL, Process Environmental Philosophy. Masters of Arts (Philosophy), May 2003, 89 pp., 78 titles
  A process-information approach is examined as a foundation for an environmental philosophy that is dynamic and elastic, with particular emphasis on value, beauty, integrity and stability supporting Aldo Leopold's vision. I challenge one of the basic assumptions of Western philosophy, namely the metaphysic al primacy of substance. The classical, medieval and modern metaphysics of substance is presented with particular attention given the paradoxes of substance. Starting from the philosophy of Heraclitus, relatively ignored by the Western tradition of philosophy, a process philosophy is developed as an alternative to standard metaphysical attitudes in philosophy. A possible resolution of Zeno's paradoxes leads to consideration of other paradoxes of substance metaphysics. It is argued that substance metaphysics is incompatible with evidence found in the shifting paradigms of ecology and general science. Process philosophy is explored as a basis for an environmental philosophy, attempting to put the environment back into philosophy.

  Committee: Pete A. Y. Gunter, Major Professor, Eugene C. Hargrove, and J. Baird Callicott. Corbeil will begin studying environmental philosophy at the University of Wales, Cardiff, in fall 2003.

• CHRISTINE S. BENTON, Corridors in Conservation and Philosophy. Masters of Arts (Philosophy), August 2003, 66 pp., 4 figures, references, 36 titles.
  My thesis focuses on philosophical themes implicit in corridor conservation, using the Big Thicket National Preserve as an example. The way in which corridors, boundaries and communities are ambiguous, as both limits and connections, is dealt with. Corridor-patch matrices assemble ecological and human groups into temporary communities, often with conflicting interests. Such constellations foreground how a foreigner's boundary crossing is a notion important to both conservation and a philosophical study of being, seen as being always in relation with otherness. In this context, the notion of foreignness and Jean-Luc Nancy's idea of being-with is explored. Understanding the complex network of relations in which an entity exists leads to an awareness of its ambiguous nature. To facilitate judgment with such ambiguity, one needs a contextual understanding of a situation.

  Committee: Irene Klaver, Major Professor, Pete A. Y. Gunter, and J. Baird Callicott. Benton was the REAL Fellow in spring 2001. She is now a Ph.D. student in the philosophy department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

• VERNON J. MARTIN, Negotiating Environmental Relationships: Why Language Matters to Environmental Philosophy.. Masters of Arts (Philosophy), December 2003, 136 pp., references, 134 titles.
  The medium of language is important to environmental philosophy, and more specifically, to the establishment and understanding of environmental relationships. The differences between animal and human language point to our unique semantic range, which results from our neurolinguistic process of signification. An examination of the linguistic implications of the problem of nature and the tenets of semiotics challenges the idea of a clean word to world fit. Because signs are the medium in which meaning is constructed, questions about nature must in part be questions of language. Environmental discourse itself is bound up in sociolinguistic productions and we must attend not only to what language says, but to what it does. NEPA functions as a speech act that systematically invokes an ethical framework by which it colonizes the domain of valuation and fails to provide a genuine opportunity for non-commodity values to be expressed.

  Committee: Eugene C. Hargrove, Major Professor, Pete A. Y. Gunter, and J. Baird Callicott. Martin was the REAL Fellow in spring 1999. He plans to work as a philosophy instructor in a community college in California.

• TIMOTHY RILEY, Trans-boundary River Basins: A Discourse on Water Scarcity, Conflict, and Water resource Management.. Masters of Arts (Philosophy), December 2003, 148 pp., 3 tables, 19 maps, references, 252 titles.
  This thesis is an inquiry regarding the interconnections between water scarcity, geopolitics, resource management, and the strategies for developing effective ways to resolve conflict and encourage sustainable water resource use in developing countries. The ecological services of trans-boundary rivers are explored in conjunction with the potential impacts to freshwater availability due to economic modernization, water resource development, and decision making regimes that determine how water is allocated among competing users. Anthropogenic stressors that induce water scarcity and the geopolitical mechanisms of conflict are studied. A discourse on the creation and functional extent of global and localized water ethics is investigated, emphasizing the importance of perceptual dispositions of water users in understanding the value of trans-boundary river basins.

  Committee: , Irene Klaver, Major Professor, Thomas W. La Point,, Julie Smith, and Eugene C. Hargrove. Riley was the REAL Fellow in fall 2000. He has worked for the City of Denton and the Town of Flower Mound as an environmental professional, and is now working for the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District in Austin, Texas as a water resource planner.

• ANDREW KRISTOPHER SHORT, Buber, Levinas, and the Non-Human Other: Toward a Broader Environmental Ethic. Masters of Arts (Philosophy), May 2004, 60 pp., references, 77 titles.
  My thesis is that there exists in the philosophies of Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas practical guides for a more responsible, productive, and sustainable relationship not only with human beings (the usual domain of Buber and Levinas scholarship), but also with non-human nature than many of the guides currently employed. I investigate Buber's concept of the "I/Thou" and its relationship to the possibilities for a human dialogue with the non-human. I also invoke Levinas' concept of "Otherness" in order to lay a foundation for a philosophical program that allows for a dynamic, multi-layered, and more fruitful human engagement with non-human others. I begin by looking at some contemporary scholarly criticisms of those who would apply the Buberian schema to nature. I then discuss BuberÕs attitudes both toward non-human animals and to nature as elaborated in his opus I and Thou as well as in later works. I place these ideas in relation to Buber's concept of "man," and conclude by presenting an evaluative interpretation of Buber's "Thou" in relation to "real" situations in the "real" world. Buber's philosophy of relation requires only that we do not allow the objectifying attitude to exhaust our interaction with the natural; that we use the natural in a caring way. The I-Thou attitude toward nature is a charter for human care of the earth. In one respect, Levinas has a Kantian conception of the ethical. With both Kant and Levinas, ethics is not concerned with maximizing a return to oneself. What happens in ethics is something unprecedented in the life of a being concerned for its own well-being. I discuss the ways in which, and the extent to which, ethics, for Levinas, is something radically uneconomical. In the third and final chapter I examine in detail the philosophies of Buber and Levinas and evaluate each in terms of what they can add to the environmental ethics and animal rights dialogues. Based on those evaluations I present practical implications for a more inclusive ethic. As I argue, the philosophy of Levinas is in many ways more intellectually sophisticated but it is Buber's philosophy that is more useful in making a substantive difference in the realm of environmental and non-human animal ethics.

  Committee: , George A. James, Major Professor, Pete A. Y. Gunter, and Irene Klaver. Short was the REAL Fellow in spring 2003.

• CHRISTOPHER LINDQUIST, Wild Practices: Teaching the Value of Wildness. Master of Arts with a Concentration in Environmental Ethics (Philosophy), May 2004, iv, 90 pp., references, 88 titles.
  The notion of wildness as a concept that is essentially intractable to definition has profound linguistic and ethical implications for wilderness preservation and environmental education. A survey of the ways in which wilderness value is expressed through language reveals much confusion and repression regarding our understanding of the autonomy of nature. By framing discussions of wilderness through fact-driven language games, the value of the wild autonomy in nature becomes ineffable. In removing wildness from the discourse on wilderness we convert wilderness value from an intrinsic value into a distorted instrumental value. If we want to teach others that wilderness value means something more than a recreational, scientific, or economic opportunity, we need to include other ways of articulating this value in our education programs. Through linking the wildness of natural systems with the wild forms in human language games, I examine the conceptual freedom required for valuing autonomy in nature. The focus on what is required of language in expressing the intrinsic value of wilderness reveals that wilderness preservation and environmental education need complementary approaches to the current science-based frameworks, such as those used by the National Park Service. The disciplines of poetry, literature, ethics, and aesthetics offer alternative language games that allow for a more fluid, imaginative, and open-ended understanding of the autonomy of nature, and a means for articulating the value of this wildness that implies an ethical position of humility.

  Committee: Eugene C. Hargrove, Major Professor, J. Baird Callicott, and James David Taylor.

• JASON LEARD, Ethics Naturally: An Environmental Ethic Based on Naturalness. Master of Arts (Philosophy), May 2004, 102 pp., references, 181 titles.
  In this thesis I attempt to base an environmental ethic on a quality called naturalness. I examine it in terms of quantification, namely, as to whether it can quantified? I then apply the concept to specific areas such as restoration and conservation to create an environmental ethic and to show how such an ethic would be beneficial in general, and especially to policy issues concerning the environment. The thesis consists of three chapters: (1) the definition of nature and natural by way of a historical approach; (2) the place of humans in this scheme; and (3) the place of value and the discussion concerning quantification.

  Committee: J. Baird Callicott, Major Professor, Eugene C. Hargrove, and Pete A. Y. Gunter. Leard was the REAL Fellow in spring 2004. He will begin the study of law in fall 2004 at the University of Tulsa.

Nonthesis Option

• MELONIE NEEL completed the M.A. in May 1993. She is now working as an environmental professional in Austin, Texas. Neel was the REAL Fellow in fall 1993.

• HEATHER HENSELL completed the M.A. in December 1995. She has been accepted into the Ph.D. program of the Department of Family Sciences at Texas Woman's University.

• ERIC POSA completed the M.A. in May 1997. He has entered a seminary, Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University. He is also a candidate for ministry fellowship in the Unitarian Universalist Association and is currently completing his ministerial internship at the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge.

• WYATT GALUSKY completed the M.A. in May 1997. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Science and Technology Studies in 2004. He is now an assistant professor in Humanities at Morrisville State College (officially State University of New York, College of Agriculture and Technology at Morrisville).
  
  
• MAGGIE MAEVRE CARSON MCRAVEN completed the M.A. in May 2000. She plans to enter a Ph.D. program at the University of New Mexico. McRaven was the REAL Fellow in spring 1997.

• REBECCA JACOBSON completed the M.A. in August 2000. She is currently teaching environmental ethics courses at Eckerd Collge in Florida. She plans to enter a Ph.D. program in the future. She was the REAL Fellow in fall 1998.

• PATRICK RUSSELL completed the M.A. in December 2003 after spending several years in the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe. He plans to enter the U.S. diplomatic corps.

Nonthesis Option

• MARK W. FIEF completed the degree in December 1992. He then founded a company that recycles solid waste for metropolitan communities.
  
  
• MICHAEL D. GERARD completed the degree in December 1992. He is currently pursing a Ph.D. in education.
  
  
• WEI LUO of the People's Republic of China completed the degree in May 1993. After working for several years as a postgraduate researcher in the Department of Environmental Studies at California State University, Davis, Luo moved to Canada where he became a senior project analyst, Internet GIS, at the Kanotech MapGuide Centre for Excellence of Kanotech Information Systems Ltd. In April 2000 he returned to China to found his own company, Chengdu Xdodmain Technlogy Ltd., which provides provides web-based services for Chinese govermental agnecies and U.S. companies. He was the REAL Fellow in spring 1993.
  
  
• STEPHEN C. EMMETT-MATTOX completed the degree in May 1994. He is currently working as an environment professional in Washington, D.C. After working four and a half years for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, where he helped states turn abandoned railroad tracks into hiking trails, he is now working for Restore America's Estuaries, which is dedicated to restoring 1,000,000 acres of estuary habitat by 2010.
  
  
• GERALD WALTON SHELLEY, JR. completed the degree in August 1995. He is currently working as a facility environmental engineer.

• JAMES ROBERTS completed the degree in May 1998. He is currently completing a second master's degree in environmental studies at Colifornia State University, Fullerton.