Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature
In a course entitled Environmental Philosophy, I analyzed the philosopher Allen Carlson’s claims outlined in “Nature and Positive Aesthetics,” an article published within the larger interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the philosophical aspects of environmental problems entitled Environmental Ethics. I argue in this paper that Carlson’s reasoning behind his claim of solely positive aesthetics fails to address various perspectives, and therefore this claim cannot be held as universally true. Throughout this course, I really enjoyed viewing environmental issues and concepts through a philosophical lens because I feel that it refined my process of critical reasoning, allowing me to confront environmental problems from new angles. Exploring environmental philosophy has become a passion of mine as I feel that it can sometimes refresh the ways that I conceptualize social justice, environmental, and economic issues, and I continue to to pursue it in my personal reading.
November 24, 2020
