In a world of pain and beauty: A Schopenhauerian phenomenology and environmental ethic (Arthur Schopenhauer)

From Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophical system one may discover several principles with which to ground an environmental ethic. Schopenhauer himself has expounded an ethics and an aesthetics based in this "world as will and representation," and he offers a lot of insight into our treatment of animals and our enjoyment of the beauty of art and nature, yet without ever articulating a specific ethics of the environment. In a sense, in this thesis I have tried to do that for him. After a description, elucidation, and defense of Schopenhauer's phenomenology, I discuss his ethics and aesthetics and focus, especially on his ideas about animals and the aesthetic and moral significance of wilderness and the alterations imposed on it by human beings. I discuss and criticize the positions of four environmental philosophers and conclude the thesis with the introduction and defense of a few environmental ethical principles grounded in the Schopenhauerian world.