Volume 46, Issue 4, Winter 2024
"What Do We Want the Environment to Be?" Critical Developments of Steven Vogel's Philosophy
Zachary Vereb
Pages 401-420
https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics2024123187
The Green Kant and Nature
Rereading Modern Philosophy Against Vogel
This paper considers the prospects for a green Kantian philosophy. It does so by revisiting Steven Vogel¡¯s postnaturalist objections against Kant. Though Descartes is part of the story, Kant is a primary environmental obstacle for Vogel. Like others in environmental philosophy, Vogel criticizes Kant for his dualism, anthropocentrism, idealism, and nonconsequentialism. The present paper looks into the first two objections. It begins by reconstructing Vogel¡¯s argument against ¡°nature¡± to appreciate his claim that modern philosophy haunts contemporary environmental philosophy. After pointing out difficulties with Vogel¡¯s objections, resources in Kant are explored to assuage Vogel¡¯s concerns regarding noumena and non-human animals. The paper concludes with a glimpse of an alternate interpretation of Kant that has the potential to respond to the remaining worries of idealism and nonconsequentialism.