Environmental Ethics and our Collective Character

David Clowney

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
21 November 2025

Ethics & moral philosophy; Social work; Social, group or collective psychology; Sales & marketing; Environmentalist thought & ideology

Series: Routledge Environmental Ethics

Faced with the global crisis of human-caused environmental harm, this eloquently written text explores the connection between our individual virtues and vices and those of larger groups, such as societies, nations, and businesses. It demonstrates how this huge collective crisis is our moral problem as individuals, and what we can do about it, together.

The book sheds light on the notion of collective character and investigates the relationship between the way we are individually and the way we are together. Drawing on research from the social sciences, it demonstrates a close correlation between our individual and collective character, highlighting the scope of our influence on others, and suggests socially possible pathways toward a fair way of life in harmony with nature and community. To implement this, Clowney argues that we must change the current extractive and wasteful methods of business, economic growth, consumption, and capitalism. Initial chapters delve into our connection to those systems and consider how these can be transformed over time, followed by seven stories exemplifying the changes required, and chapters on several environmental virtues in their individual and collective form. The book concludes with a meditation on the virtues of faith, hope, and love, which the author puts forward as grounded in many traditions, and necessary to sustain the work of environmental change.

Environmental Ethics and our Collective Character will be an important discussion text for students, academics, and instructors in the field of environmental virtue ethics, virtue ethics more broadly, business ethics, political and social philosophy, and environmental and policy studies.

By: David Clowney
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781041040439
ISBN 10: 1041040431
Series: Routledge Environmental Ethics
Pages: 266
Publication Date: 21 November 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

David Clowney is a retired philosophy professor who works and has published in the fields of environmental ethics and aesthetics. His career began with pastoral ministry and theological seminary instruction, followed by a professorship at Rowan University in New Jersey, USA.