J. Baird Callicott
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Baird Callicott is Professor of Philosophy and Religion Studies in the Institute of Applied Sciences at the University of North Texas. He was Vice President and then President of the International Society for Environmental Ethics from 1994 to 2000. He was a professor of Philosophy and Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point from 1969 to 1995 where he taught the world's first course in environmental ethics in 1971.
Callicott was born in 1941, completed his undergraduate work in philosophy at Rhodes College in 1963, and received his Ph.D in philosophy from Syracuse University in 1971.
Callicott's work has been at the forefront of the new field of environmental philosophy and ethics. Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac is one of the field's seminal text, and Callicott is widely considered to be the leading contemporary exponent of Leopold's land ethic. Callicott's In Defense of the Land Ethic (1989) explores the intellectual foundations of Leopold's outlook and provides a more complete philospohical treatment. His Beyond the Land Ethic extends Leopold’s environmental philosophy. He is the author of numerous publications on environmental ethics.
[edit] Philosophy
Callicott takes as his leading premise Lepold's dictum, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community." Callicott insists that the environment should be protected and preserved such that the natural order is maintained. The domestication of animals, large-scale farming operations, or activity that impinges upon the natural ecosystem is morally wrong. The point of ethics is not to avoid suffering or promote the welfare of animal life, as Peter Singer would have it, but to maintain the natural order, which, Callicott argues, is intrinsically good. He is therefore not sympathetic to animal liberationists or vegetarians who want to prevent killing and suffering, for these are natural outcomes.
