Wilderness has been a central value in the development of the American
environmental tradition and has been established in our laws and institutions, first in the
National Park System and then more extensively through the Wilderness Act. Some
have suggested that valuing wilderness, understood as nature without people or culture,
is a peculiarly modern sentiment and that it is internally inconsistent, pathological, and a
hindrance to solving real environmental problems. Contrary to this approach, I defend a
richer conception of wilderness that undermines each of these claims. Beginning with an
etymology of wilderness and a history of the development of wilderness appreciation, I
argue that wilderness is not essentially an absence of people or culture but the
flourishing of natural purposes: land characterized by untamed animals and plants in
untamed relations. This interpretation of wilderness allows for a more cogent reading of
the wilderness preservation tradition and the Wilderness Act. It also elucidates
philosophical difficulties surrounding the practices of wilderness management and
ecological restoration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3037 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Henderson, David Graham |
| Contributors | McDermott, John J. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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