Dirty Virtues Book

DIRTY VIRTUES is the first extensive study of ecological virtue ethics. Based on a wide-ranging survey of environmental literature, it offers an overview of current "green" virtue language, dubbed "dirty virtues," as well as the basic elements of a matching ecological virtue theory. Environmental ethics is not exhausted by debates about the rights of rivers, our duties to bioregions, and the intrinsic value of nonhuman nature; rather, ecoliterature also contains a rich virtue language. Highlighting the integrity, diversity, internal tensions, dynamism, and visionary character of this ecological virtue language, Louke van Wensveen shows both its historical roots and innovative features. She includes a unique catalog of 189 virtues and 174 vices that mark the vision and praxis of people committed to ecological flourishing. The second part of DIRTY VIRTUES presents carefully crafted criteria to help discern genuine virtue and vice in an ecological age. Van Wensveen's arguments are distinguished by a critical balance of moral sources, including Aristotelian virtue theory, Christian tradition, women's experiences, psychological theory, and metaphorical representations of nonhuman nature. Methodologically innovative and boldly interdisciplinary, DIRTY VIRTUES will challenge and inspire virtue theorists, as well as environmental ethicists and theologians.