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The Role of Philosophers in Climate Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2022

EUGENE CHISLENKO Open the ORCID record for EUGENE CHISLENKO [Opens in a new window]
EUGENE CHISLENKO*
Affiliation:
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY [email protected]
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Abstract

Some conceptions of the role of philosophers in climate change focus mainly on theoretical progress in philosophy, or on philosophers as individual citizens. Against these views, I defend a skill view: philosophers should use our characteristic skills as philosophers to combat climate change by integrating it into our teaching, research, service, and community engagement. A focus on theoretical progress, citizenship, expertise, virtue, ability, social role, or power, rather than on skill, can allow for some of these contributions. But the skill view, I argue, uniquely captures the breadth of philosophers’ role in climate change; promises to make us more effective in practice; and offers a compelling way to overcome our own lingering climate denial by integrating climate change into all aspects of philosophical activity.

Keywords

climate changesustainabilityinstitutionsjusticemetaphilosophy
Type
Article
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , Winter 2022 , pp. 780 - 798
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Philosophical Association

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Footnotes

This essay has benefited from feedback by many people, including Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, Amy Berg, Michael Brownstein, Simona Capisani, Lee-Ann Chae, Dylan Khanal, Arthur Krieger, Rebecca Millsop, Kaitlin Pettit, Robin Zheng, my anonymous reviewers, and audiences at the American Philosophical Association (Central Division), the International Society for Environmental Ethics, the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, the International Association for Environmental Philosophy, Next Earth, and the Great Lakes Philosophy Conference. A special thanks to Charles Goldhaber for extremely helpful feedback on several drafts.

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