Toward Shared Grounds Between Environmental Pragmatism and Foundationalist Ecology

실용주의 환경론과 근본주의 생태론의 접점 모색

It is unfair that environmental pragmatism has been regarded as a mouthpiece for industrial expediency and business boosterism. John Dewey's radical pragmatism known as 'Instrumentalism' has provoked ecological fundamentalists' criticism more vehemently than any other pragmatic philosophies. However, most of the presumptive misunderstandings of such critics as Holmes Rolston, J. Baird Calliott, Erich Katz, C. A. Bowers and many others come from their limited or reduced reading of Deweyan pragmatism. The following three aspects of Deweyan pragmatism can work out in opening up a dialogical space with those eco-centrist thinkers mentioned above. First, the concept of Dewey's 'primary experience' can articulate the foundationalist view of nature, which is often found in aboriginal cultures. Second, as Andrew Light points out, ecological essentialism can share its metaphilosophical position with the pragmatist epistemology. While Anthony Weston pursues pluralism, admitting that the foundationalism might be one of the efficient approaches to nature, Eric Katz is also clearly attracted to the metaphilosophical element in Weston's argument that anyone who attempts to claim the 'inherent value' of non-human nature never possibly avoids a pitfall of anthropomorphism. Lastly, in a more comprehensive perspective, Dewey's pragmatism shows a philosophical complexity, what Larry A. Hickman calls 'post-postmodernism.' a dynamic interaction between modernism and postmodernism. Significantly enough, the environmental version of this complexity can procure a meeting ground between foundationalist ecology and the pragmatic view of nature.