~ London and New York / 1 \ lb 1 PRAGMATISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL THOUGHT

"Pragmatism" here refers to a school of philosophical thought American pragmatism and not to that shortsighted, allegedly "practical-minded" attitude towards the world that is a major obstacle to environmentally responsible behavior in our time. 1 The insight behind "environmental pragmatism" is that American pragmatism is a philosophy of environments. Although the founders of pragmatism rarely had occasion to write explicitly on what we would today call environmental concerns, the fundamental insights of environmental philosophy are implicit in their work. The observations that the human sphere is embedded at every point in the broader natural sphere, that each inevitably affects the other in ways that are often impossible to predict, and that values emerge in the ongoing transactions between humans and environments, for example, are all central concepts for the pragmatists as for many contemporary philosophers of environment. Part 1 of this essay outlines the main features of American pragmatism. So that readers new to pragmatism may more readily situate its main tenets with respect to other philosophical approaches, the major points are here presented as critical responses to familiar positions in epistemology, metaphysics, and value theory. Part 2 situates pragmatism with respect to some of the major issues in current ecophilosophy. Here, too, the presentation is largely a critical response to prevailing views. It must be stressed, however, that pragmatism is a constructive philosophical approach: the purpose of criticism, after all, is to open the way for new insight. Part 2 particularly stresses the question of a metaphysical grounding for environmental ethics, an area of environmental philosophy where pragmatism may have the most to offer.