Finding Our Place in Nature argues that Aristotelian philosophy provides a much needed ethical foundation for the environmental sciences and for our daily commitment to practices of sustainability. Shearman challenges previously held interpretations of Aristotle’s value to the grounding of environmental ethics. He demonstrates that Aristotelian philosophy is a valuable and under-appreciated resource for any student-citizen who requires ethically persuasive reasons—both for pursuing environmental science in the first place and for grounding our social practices as citizens. The author clarifies sustainability as a moral concept—this supplies the underlying purpose to the applied environmental sciences and to living the good life. More importantly, the environmental sciences without the ethical grounding provided by moral philosophy are incomplete and unable to realize a sustainable vision.
 
About the author
Richard Shearman is professor emeritus in the Science, Technology, and Society Department of the College of Liberal Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the development of an Aristotelian approach to environmental philosophy and an examination of the challenges associated with interdisciplinary problem solving in the area of conservation of biodiversity.

Finding Our Place in Nature was a finalist for the 2020 PROSE Awards honoring scholarly works published in 2019, in the Environmental Science category.