Ben A. Minteer
Environmental Ethics and Policy, History & Philosophy of Conservation/Environmentalism
Much of my research is focused on a set of issues lying at the intersection of applied environmental ethics and environmental policy studies. I am especially interested in the ethical foundations of environmental policy, including policies and practices relating to biodiversity conservation, land management, and environmental sustainability. Along more theoretical lines, I have explored the ways in which philosophical pragmatism can contribute to better environmental ethical thinking, and how arguments advancing various environmental values square with broader social and political commitments.
My other primary area of scholarly activity surrounds the intellectual underpinnings and historical trajectory of American conservation and environmentalism. This research has resulted in several book-length publications, including The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America (MIT Press, 2006), and Reconstructing Conservation (edited with R.E. Manning, Island Press, 2003). I continue to develop these and related threads in Tilling the Holy Earth (manuscript in progress; under contract with MIT Press), which considers the thought and legacy of Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954), a nearly forgotten figure in the annals of American conservation and environmentalism.
Books
Minteer, Ben A. (under contract and in progress). Tilling the Holy Earth: Liberty Hyde Bailey and the Roots of Agrarian Environmentalism , MIT Press.
Minteer, Ben A., ed. (2009, forthcoming) Nature in Common? Environmental Ethics and the Contested Foundations of Environmental Policy, Temple University Press.
Minteer, Ben A. (2006). The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America, MIT Press.
Minteer, Ben A. and Robert E. Manning, eds. (2003). Reconstructing Conservation: Finding Common Ground, Island Press.
Minteer, Ben A. and Bob Pepperman Taylor, eds. (2002). Democracy and the Claims of Nature: Critical Perspectives for a New Century, Rowman & Littlefield.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters : | CV (PDF)
Minteer, Ben A., "Biocentric Farming? Liberty Hyde Bailey and Environmental Ethics," Environmental Ethics (forthcoming).
Minteer, Ben A., “The Future of Environmental Philosophy,” Ethics and the Environment 12 (2007): 132-133.
Minteer, Ben A. and James P. Collins, "From Environmental to Ecological Ethics: Toward a Practical Ethics for Ecologists and Conservationists," Science and Engineering Ethics (in press).
Minteer Ben, A. and Elizabeth A. Corley (2007): "Conservation or Preservation?: A Qualitative Study of the Foundations of Natural Resource Management," Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethic s 20: 307-333
Bozeman, Barry and Ben A. Minteer (2007). "Toward a Pragmatic Public Interest Theory," in B. Bozeman, Public Values and Public Interest : Counterbalancing Economic Individualism (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2007).
Minteer, Ben A. and James P. Collins (2005): Why we Need an Ecological Ethics. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3: 332-337.
Minteer, Ben A. and James P. Collins (2005): Ecological Ethics: Building a New Tool Kit for Ecologists and Biodiversity Managers. Conservation Biology 19: 1803-1812.
Minteer, Ben A. and Robert E. Manning (2005): An Appraisal of the Critique of Anthropocentrism and Three Lesser Known Themes in Lynn White's 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis." Organization & Environment 18: 163-177.
Minteer, Ben A. (2005): Environmental Philosophy and The Public Interest: A Pragmatic Reconciliation, Environmental Values 14: 37-60.
Minteer, Ben A. (2004): Beyond Considerability: A Deweyan View of the Animal Rights/Environmental Ethics Debate, in Animal Pragmatism, eds. Andrew Light and Erin McKenna. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, pp. 97-118.
Minteer, Ben A., Corley, Elizabeth A., and Robert E. Manning (2004): Environmental Ethics beyond Principle? The Case for a Pragmatic Contextualism. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics: 131-156.
Minteer, Ben A. (2003): Valuing Nature: Ethical Perspectives on the Loss of Biodiversity, in The Loss of Biodiversity, eds. Sharon Spray and Karen McGlothlin. Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 75-97
Minteer, Ben A. (2003): Regional Planning as Pragmatic Conservationism, in Reconstructing Conservation: Finding Common Ground, eds. Ben A. Minteer and Robert E. Manning. Island Press, pp. 93-113.
Minteer, Ben A. (2002): Deweyan Democracy and Environmental Ethics, in Democracy and the Claims of Nature: Critical Perspectives for a New Century, eds. Ben A. Minteer and Bob Pepperman Taylor. Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 33-48.
Norton, Bryan and Ben A. Minteer (2002): From Environmental Ethics to Environmental Public Philosophy: Ethicists and Economists, 1973-2010, in International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics 2002/2003 eds. Tom Tietenberg and Henk Folmer. Edward Elgar, pp. 373-407.
Minteer, Ben A. (2001): Intrinsic Value for Pragmatists? Environmental Ethics 23: 57-75.
Minteer, Ben A. (2001): Wilderness and the Wise Province: Benton MacKayes Pragmatic Vision, Philosophy and Geography 4: 187-204.
Minteer, Ben A. and Robert E. Manning (2000): Convergence in Environmental Values: An Empirical and Conceptual Defense. Ethics, Place, and Environment 3: 47-60.
Minteer, Ben A. and Robert E. Manning (1999): Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics: Democracy, Pluralism, and the Management of Nature. Environmental Ethics 21: 191-207.
Robert E. Manning, William A. Valliere, and Ben A. Minteer (1999): Values, Ethics, and Attitudes Toward National Forest Management: An Empirical Study. Society and Natural Resources 12: 421-436.