Olusegun Steven Samuel

J. Baird Callicott's Ecological Communitarianism: a Critical Analysis Olusegun Steven Samuel

This book attempts a critical analysis of J. Baird Callicott?s defence of Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic. Leopold engages in an ethical reflection in a bid to confront environmental problems. Leopold?s work has then be praised as well as criticized. To further enhance the land ethic, Callicott argues that it is a holistic guidebook to environmental reconstruction. He suggests that holistic non-anthropocentric paradigm is better than shades of anthropocentric perspectives to resolving environmental concerns. Subsequently, he posits that evolutionary cum ecological bases are necessary for moral extensionism to land if human root of ecological hurdles is to be controlled. This study finds Callicott?s arguments thought-provoking. It is granted that radical anthropocentric outlook, which suggests that only humans have interest, erroneously leads to absurd conclusion; yet Callicott?s view is critiqued. Then, it is shown that the urgent task is not that of ethical extensionism, but a renewal of moral attitude and virtues on the part of humans. This, it is suggested, can be revitalized through a reliance on the Yoruba moral virtues, which this study espouses.