125:, he argued that, whereas the world around us – our "environment" – consists of both natural, spontaneously-occurring environments and human-constructed – or built – environments (and, increasingly, their various admixtures), environmental ethics as it had developed to that point had essentially been concerned only with the ethics of the natural environment. In his view, this meant that just as traditional, human-centred forms of ethics had exhibited what he referred to as a "blind spot" in regard to affording any significant consideration (or any consideration at all) to the nonhuman world, so the development of environmental ethics to that point had exhibited a major blind spot of its own in regard to the human-constructed (or built) environment. What we needed, Fox argued, was a more general kind of ethics that could embrace not only traditional, human-focused ethical concerns but also ethical concerns raised by our relationships with both the nonhuman natural environment
102:
ensuring less anthropocentric/more ecocentric approaches to the world around us. Fox demonstrated this by showing that the process of asking deeper questions could easily lead one to endorse first principles (or "fundamentals") from which one could straightforwardly derive even outrageously anthropocentric conclusions, depending upon the other hypotheses that one made use of in employing Naess's approach to developing a normative system. Finally, Fox argued that the third idea, of "cultivating wider and deeper identification" with the world around us, was both defensible and distinctive of the deep ecology approach to environmental philosophy. Fox referred to this defensible and distinctive aspect of deep ecology as "transpersonal ecology", since it sought to encourage us to identify with the wider world in a way that went well beyond our normal range of personally-based identifications.
216:, which comprises an argument for respecting more inclusive responsively cohesive contexts over less inclusive responsively cohesive contexts or items. The upshot is that we should be guided by the positive ideal of preserving, regenerating, and creating examples of responsive cohesion that do not themselves cause the destruction or diminishment of contextual responsive cohesion. At the most general level, this means that human social systems should accommodate far more to the wider, biospherical (ecological) system rather than vice versa, and that human-constructed things, such as buildings, should in turn be made to accommodate far more to biospherical systems and human social systems (in that ultimate order of priority) than vice versa.
220:
things), other responsively cohesive arrangements constitute sentient beings and even "selves" (i.e., in either case, it would be "like something" to be them). Fox argues that sentient beings, pure and simple (i.e., sentient beings that do not also constitute "selves"), can only be harmed in terms of being caused unnecessary pain and suffering, whereas "selves" – beings that have a sense of self through time, an "autobiographical self" – can be harmed, in addition, by the unwanted death or diminishment of their autobiographical capacities. In common with many other ethicists, Fox argues that we should actively seek to avoid causing either of these forms of harm.
106:
felt commonality with other entities that are brought about through personal involvement with them; through a deep-seated realization of the "utterly astonishing fact" that, like oneself, they too exist (which takes us into the realm of what
Wittgenstein himself referred to as the "mystical"); and through a deep-seated realization of the fact that we and all other entities are aspects of a single unfolding reality. Fox argued particularly for the importance of this last, cosmologically-based, form of identification in counteracting our tendency to rely too much in our lives on personally-based forms of identification.
189:, that is, they hold together (or cohere) by virtue of the mutual responsiveness of the elements or salient features that constitute them. Fox makes it clear that he construes "responsiveness" very generally here to include both literal and metaphorical senses of the term, so that this idea applies as much to art and architecture as it does to living and social systems. Fox contrasts responsive cohesion with two other basic forms organization, which he refers to as
527:: "Exploring the Cognitive Worlds of Mindsharers and Iso-experients" and "Time Blindness, Autobiographical Death, and Our Obligations in Respect of All Beings". See also, Warwick Fox, "Foundations of a General Ethics: Selves, Sentient Beings, and Other Responsively Cohesive Structures", in Anthony O'Hear, ed.,
161:
General Ethics as "the theory of responsive cohesion". (He accepts that other approaches might also be developed to
General Ethics and offers suggestions as to the general structural features that they, too, would likely need to possess.) Fox's theory of responsive cohesion approach proceeds from the
101:
as well as more radical wings of Green political parties) were also trying to do this. Conversely, he argued that the second idea, of "asking deeper questions" about our relationship with the world around us, was relatively distinctive of the deep ecological approach but wasn't defensible as a way of
319:
Fox had previously argued, contra
Richard Sylvan, that, unlike most mainstream environmental ethicists, the writings of the main philosophically-oriented writers on deep ecology were not centrally focused on presenting ethically-framed arguments for the "intrinsic value" of the non-human world (even
105:
Pursuing this line of thinking, Fox distinguished between three basic forms of identification, which he referred to as "personally-based identification", "ontologically based-identification", and "cosmologically-based identification". These forms of identification refer, respectively, to forms of
219:
The experiential implications of the idea of responsive cohesion are important because, whereas some responsively cohesive arrangements are merely "things" (i.e., there is no inner, experiential dimension to them; it would not be, as Thomas Nagel has taught us to say, "like anything" to be these
141:
Fox refers to the kind of ethics he believes we need to develop as "General Ethics" (always spelt with a capital "G" and a capital "E" to "distinguish it from coincidental or haphazard references to 'general ethics' or 'ethics in general,' by which an author may well mean something much more
211:
The contextual implications of the idea of responsive cohesion are important because some responsively cohesive arrangements can represent the contexts of other responsively cohesive arrangements, but this doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a harmonious – or responsively cohesive –
208:(i.e., the most basic general value we can find) into a General Ethics (i.e., a comprehensive ethical system as defined above). This system rests, in particular, on the exploration and development of the idea of responsive cohesion in two dimensions: the contextual and the experiential.
142:
limited"). He defines
General Ethics as referring to the development of a single, integrated approach to ethics that encompasses the realms of interhuman ethics, the ethics of the nonhuman natural environment, and the ethics of the human-constructed (or built) environment.
258:. Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 1990; US reprint edition: New York: The State University of New York Press, 1995; UK and European reprint edition: Totnes, Devon: Green Books, 1995; Japanese language edition: Toransupasonaru Ekoroji'i, Tokyo: Heibon-sha, 1994.
271:. London: Routledge, 2000. (This publication followed on from Fox's organizing of "The Ethics of Building" conference,10-12 April 1999, Penrith, Lake District, England, which is thought to have been the first international conference devoted to that subject.)
235:
Fox provides an overview of the development of his work from deep ecology to the theory of responsive cohesion, as well as broader reflections on "The Ideas Game" in general, in two of the later chapters of his semi-autobiographical/semi-fictional book
84:
Fox argued that the first idea, of advancing a less anthropocentric/more ecocentric approach to the world around us, was eminently defensible but hardly distinctive of the deep ecology approach since other environmental philosophical approaches (e.g.,
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Fox's theory of responsive cohesion has been applied by other researchers to a range of areas including agriculture, architecture, craft, environmental aesthetics, gardening, landscape architecture, landscape management, politics, and urban design.
153:
series. Keller also included the category of "General Ethics" as the third and final section (after the sections on "Individualism" and "Holism (Ecocentrism)") of the "What is the Scope of Moral
Responsibility" section in that collection.
227:
by applying the resources of the theory to what he identifies as the 18 central problems in the realms of interhuman ethics, the ethics of the natural environment, and the ethics of the human-constructed (or built) environment.
531:, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 69 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 47-66; and Warwick Fox, "Forms of Harm and our Obligations to Humans and Other Animals", in Evangelos Protopapadakis, ed.,
81:, would inevitably lead us to first principles or "fundamentals" from which a broadly ecocentric perspective would follow); and (iii) the idea of "cultivating wider and deeper identification" with the world around us.
212:
relationship between them. In these cases, what should be given higher priority, the context or the item of interest within it? To answer this, Fox develops the theory of responsive cohesion's
746:
37:. His main areas of philosophical interest are environmental philosophy, General Ethics (a term coined and defined by Fox), and the nature of the interior lives of humans and other animals.
114:
In the late 1990s Fox moved on from writing on deep ecology (including its connections to and differences from other approaches to environmental ethics), and began to consider the field of
328:(Environmental Studies Occasional Paper no. 20), Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, 1986 (ISSN: 0810 4395). See also: Richard Sylvan, "A Critique of Deep Ecology",
170:
that certain entities possess (such as rationality, sentience, or even being alive), which is where most ethicists have tended to look for it, but rather at the far more basic level of
332:, No. 12, Philosophy Dept, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University, 1985; also reprinted in two parts in the Summer and Autumn 1985 issues of
324:"intrinsic value"), but rather on motivating the more psychological process of cultivating wider and deeper identification with the world around us. See: Warwick Fox,
223:
Having developed these dimensions of the basic concept of responsive cohesion into the fully-fledged version of the theory of responsive cohesion, Fox concludes
741:
736:
656:, 38 (2010): 379-389; Antony Radford and Tarkko Oksala, "Responsive cohesion in the art and artfulness of urban design: some case studies in Helsinki",
589:
John Brown, "Responsive
Cohesion and the Value of Wild Nature", paper presented to the Canadian Society for Aesthetics, June 2008, available online at:
22:(born 1 March 1954) is an Australian-UK philosopher. He is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Central Lancashire, and his books include
193:, in which "things" – from thoughts to bodies to buildings – hold together, but do so in regimented, template-driven, forced, or otherwise
574:
Antony
Radford, “The Perception of Craft in a Digital Age”, in T. Oksala, T. Orel, A. Mutanen, M. Friman, J. Lamberg, and M. Hintsa, eds.
77:"; (ii) the idea of "asking deeper questions" about our relationship with the nonhuman world (which it was claimed, primarily by
145:
David Keller showed "General Ethics" as the most inclusive sphere in his diagram of "Spheres of Moral
Responsibility" in his
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idea that the ultimate basis of value is to be found not at the relatively high level of certain kinds of value-conferring
626:
Isis Brook, "Restoring or Re-storying the Lake
District: applying responsive cohesion to a current problem situation",
65:
in which he argued that deep ecology is associated with three basic ideas: (i) the general idea of developing a non-
349:
Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1981 (Leopold's influential "Land Ethic" is outlined in the concluding chapter);
57:
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Specifically, Fox argues that the most valuable kinds of things typically exemplify the relational quality of
544:
Isis Brook, "Ethics of Agricultural Landscapes and Food production", in Zeunart, J. & Waterman, T. eds,
751:
675:, Amazon: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (ppb) and Kindle Direct Publishing (eBook), 2014.
297:, Amazon: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (ppb) and Kindle Direct Publishing (eBook), 2014.
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613:
Ian Thompson, "Landscape and Environmental Ethics", in P. Howard, I. Thompson, and E. Waterton, eds,
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488:(pp. 357-360), entitled "Concluding Notes on the Structure of Any Future Version of General Ethics".
97:-oriented ethics) along with some broader socio-political movements (e.g., some wings of the wider
35:
On Beautiful Days Such as This: A Philosopher's Search for Love, Work, Place, Meaning, and Suchlike
673:
On Beautiful Days Such as This: A philosopher's search for love, work, place, meaning and suchlike
295:
On Beautiful Days Such as This: A philosopher's search for love, work, place, meaning and suchlike
350:
369:(NY: Oxford University Press, 2013); James Heffernan, "The Land Ethic: A Critical Reappraisal,"
121:
73:
approach to the world around us (summarized in one form by a widely referred to eight-point "
66:
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578:(Hämeenlinna: Hämeen ammattikorkeakoulu, 2022), pp. 102-116; book freely available at:
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A Theory of General Ethics: Human Relationships, Nature, and the Built Environment
78:
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A Theory of General Ethics: Human Relationships, Nature, and the Built Environment
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Antony Radford, "Responsive Cohesion as the Foundational Value of Architecture",
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Approaching Deep Ecology: A Response to Richard Sylvan's Critique of Deep Ecology
661:
70:
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Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations for Environmentalism;
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Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations for Environmentalism
54:
approach to environmental philosophy. His central publication in this area was
50:
Fox's earlier work (1984 to mid-1990s) focused on analysing and developing the
90:
579:
390:, pp. 131-141; Arne Naess, "Notes on the Methodology of Normative Systems",
365:(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999); J. Baird Callicott,
361:(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989); J. Baird Callicott,
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83(1974): 435-50. Widely reprinted in other philosophy of mind collections.
74:
561:, 14 (2009): 511-532; Terry Williamson, Antony Radford, Helen Bennetts,
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4 (1982): 235‑247; Kenneth Goodpaster, "On Being Morally Considerable",
357:(Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987); J. Baird Callicott,
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Arne Naess, "The deep ecological movement: some philosophical aspects",
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Companion to 'A Sand County Almanac': Interpretive and Critical Essays
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Antony Radford, "Urban Design, Ethics, and Responsive Cohesion",
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In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy
363:
Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy
204:
Fox develops the idea that responsive cohesion represents the
712:
600:
Isis Brook, "The Virtues of Gardening", in D. O'Brien, ed.,
501:: "The Theory of Responsive Cohesion's Theory of Contexts".
367:
Thinking Like a Planet: The Land Ethic and the Earth Ethic
201:, in which things fail to hold together well or at all.
133:
General Ethics and the Theory of Responsive Cohesion
510:See Thomas Nagel, "What is it like to be a Bat?",
747:Academics of the University of Central Lancashire
436:it exists" (Pears and McGuinness translation).
432:things are in the world that is mystical, but
129:the human-constructed, or built, environment.
330:Discussion Papers in Environmental Philosophy
8:
615:The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies
533:Animal Ethics: Past and Present Perspectives
149:teaching anthology for the Wiley-Blackwell
535:(Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2012), pp. 197-221.
428:it is" (Ogden translation); or "It is not
643:(Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2010).
546:Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Food
60:Ecology: Developing New Foundations for
473:Environmental Ethics: The Big Questions
320:though they would sometimes employ the
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617:(London: Routledge, 2013), pp. 207-21.
563:Understanding Sustainable Architecture
284:. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
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742:21st-century Australian philosophers
737:20th-century Australian philosophers
654:Building Research & Information
424:the world is, is the mystical, but
602:Gardening: Philosophy for Everyone
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604:(London: Wiley, 2010), pp. 13-25.
523:See, especially, chs. 7 and 8 of
93:" and other forms of ecophere or
713:"Warwick Fox (personal website)"
475:(Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
447:Ethics and the Built Environment
269:Ethics and the Built Environment
110:Ethics and the Built Environment
27:Ethics and the Built Environment
157:Fox refers to his own approach
118:as a whole. In his edited book
529:Philosophy and the Environment
418:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
405:Toward a Transpersonal Ecology
388:Toward a Transpersonal Ecology
238:On Beautiful Days Such as This
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151:Philosophy: The Big Questions
576:Craft, Technology and Design
214:normative theory of contexts
565:(London: Spon Press, 2003).
559:The Journal of Architecture
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548:(London: Routledge, 2018).
525:A Theory of General Ethics
499:A Theory of General Ethics
497:See, especially, ch. 6 of
486:A Theory of General Ethics
460:A Theory of General Ethics
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139:A Theory of General Ethics
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512:The Philosophical Review
69:or, more positively, an
658:Journal of Urban Design
392:Methodology and Science
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471:David R. Keller, ed.,
347:A Sand County Almanac.
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416:Ludwig Wittgenstein,
375:Journal of Philosophy
308:Philosophical Inquiry
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75:Deep Ecology Platform
641:Political Ideologies
628:Environmental Values
371:Environmental Ethics
147:Environmental Ethics
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630:27 (2018): 427-445.
394:, 10 (1977): 64–79.
377:75 (1978): 308-325.
336:(issues 40 and 41).
187:responsive cohesion
639:H. B. McCullough,
351:J. Baird Callicott
334:Radical Philosophy
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