Chapter 1: The Normative Elements of Our Social Discourse and the Environmental Issues to be Confronted
Part II: The Philosophy of Environmental Duty
Chapter 2: Our Reasoned Environmental Discourse and Derived Duties: Constructivism as a Moral Process
Chapter 3: Recognizing Environmental Duties
Chapter 4: The Philosophy of Community and the Environmental Ethic
Part III: The Rhetoric of Environmental Discourse
Chapter 5: Some Rhetoric of Environmental Equity and Economic Efficiency
Chapter 6: The Environment as an Input to Production and as a Provider of Amenities
Chapter 7: Reaching Unbiased and Stable Environmental Decisions Through Fair and Reasoned Discourse
Part IV: The Necessities for and Contributions of Our Environmental Organizations
Chapter 8: Human Caused Climate Change and Its Deniers
Chapter 9: Duty, Environmental Advocacy Organizations, and the Commons
Chapter 10: The Current State of Environmental Discourse: Is it “Fair” or Otherwise?
Chapter 11: Some Environmental Organizations and Their “Fair and Reasoned” Contributions
Chapter 12: Common Property Resources and the Making of the Global Tragedy
Richard M. Robinson is Professor of Business at SUNY Fredonia, USA, and
the author of The Imperfect Duties of Management (2020), and numerous
peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles ( Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of
Economics and Finance, Journal of Financial Research, and many other scholarly
journals). He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Oregon, USA.
This book explores the meaning and role of “fair and reasoned discourse” in the context of our institutions for environmental decision processes. The book reviews the roles of our “environmental advocacy organizations”—such as The Sierra Club, The Audubon Society, the Environmental Defense Fund—in providing and ensuring that our discourse and decisions are fair and reasoned according to the criteria of being (i) inclusive of input from all affected, (ii) informed of relevant scientific and socio-economic information, (iii) uncorrupted by direct conflicts of interest, and (iv) logical according robust review by uncorrupted judges. These organizations are described and examined as expressions of “collective imperfect duty,” i.e. the coordinated duties with environmental direction. The current state of our discourse is examined in light of this fairness criteria, particularly in consideration of the cross-border problems that threaten tragedies of the global commons.
Richard M. Robinson is Professor of Business at SUNY Fredonia, USA.