As “ an expatriate Southerner, fresh from the pitched battles of the Civil Rights struggle in Memphis, Tennessee ,” Callicott believed that “ the environment was under wholesale assault from every direction with no surcease in sight ” and that “ Civil Rights was a cause already won in the republic of ideas and in the courts ( if not on Main Street in Memphis ).” He “ was a concerned citizen, but was also, more particularly, a challenged philosopher .” So Callicott asked “ how, as a philosopher, could contribute to a rethinking of human nature and a reconstruction of human values to help bring them into line with the relatively new ideas about the nature of the environment emerging from ecology and the new physics .”

Callicott traces the conceptual foundations of the Leopold land ethic first back to Charles Darwin ’ s analysis of the “ moral sense ” in the Descent of Man and ultimately to David Hume ’ s grounding of ethics in the “ moral sentiments ” espoused in An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.

Callicott has explored the possibility of a Judeo-Christian “ citizenship ” environmental ethic as a more radical alternative to the familiar Judeo-Christian “ stewardship ” environmental ethic that was developed in response to criticism from environmental historians and philosophers.

Callicott has worked with conservation biologists to develop a philosophy of conservation and conservation values and ethics, based in part on the recent paradigm shift in ecology from what he calls the “ balance of nature ” to the “ flux of nature .” He has been a strong critic of the “ received wilderness idea ”: the idea that wildernesses are places that are “ untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain .” That idea, Callicott claims in The Great New Wilderness Debate ( 1998 ), perpetuates a pre-Darwinian human-nature dualism ; in effect, it “ erases ” from collective memory the indigenous inhabitants of North America and Australia, liberating the current inhabitants of those continents from disturbing thoughts of their own heritage of genocide.

The addition of Callicott ’ s expertise helped cement its standing as the world's leading program in the field.

When the details of that worldview are shown to be inconsistent with themselves or unable to account for all the facts, the theory is revised accordingly ; the evolutionary-ecological worldview is thus self-correcting and is therefore, Callicott believes, becoming ever more refined.

Callicott is, perhaps, best known for his research which explores an Aldo Leopold ethic as a response to global climate change.

Callicott ’ s book In Defense of the Land Ethic ( 1989 ) explores the intellectual foundations of Leopold's outlook and seeks to provide it with a more complete philosophical treatment ; and a following publication titled Beyond the Land Ethic ( 1999 ) further extends Leopold ’ s environmental philosophy.

Aldo Leopold, according to Callicott, provides reasons why non-human species, biotic communities, and ecosystems should be valued intrinsically ( and thus not severely compromised or destroyed ).

In response to Callicott ’ s elaboration of the Aldo Leopold land ethic, the land ethic ( and, by implication, Callicott ’ s own non-anthropocentric, holistic environmental ethic to the extent that it may differ from Leopold ’ s ) has been subject to the charge of “ ecofascism ,” notably leveled by Tom Regan.

In “ The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic ,” Callicott replies that Leopold presented the land ethic as an “ accretion ” to our evolving complex set of ethics.

As Andrew Light observes, Callicott does not insist that the Leopold land ethic is based on the uniquely true worldview of evolutionary biology and ecology.

Some scholars acknowledge the intellectual merits of Callicott ’ s critique of the wilderness idea, but regard it as both a betrayal of one of Aldo Leopold ’ s most cherished causes and as giving aid and comfort to the environmental movement ’ s enemies.

Callicott was instrumental in developing the field of environmental philosophy and in 1971 taught the world's first course in environmental ethics.

Callicott was born in Memphis, Tennessee on May 9, 1941, to distinguished regional artist and art instructor Burton H. Callicott ( 1907 – 2003 ), of the Memphis Academy of Arts ( now Memphis College of Arts ).

In addition, his arrangement for " Cottonfield Blues " was performed by early Delta blues musicians Garfield Akers and Mississippi Joe Callicott in 1929.

Among many other speakers: Tyler Volk, Co-director of the Program in Earth and Environmental Science at New York University ; Dr. Donald Aitken, Principal of Donald Aitken Associates ; Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment ; Robert Correll, Senior Fellow, Atmospheric Policy Program, American Meteorological Society and noted environmental ethicist, J. Baird Callicott.

The tradition of dichotomous thinking in Western philosophy inclines most philosophers to dismiss Hume ’ s ethics as a kind of irrational emotivism, despite the fact that, Callicott believes, Hume clearly provides a key role for reason in moral action and judgment.

Additionally, Callicott has been criticized for espousing an overbearing and impolitic monism in environmental ethics.

Callicott claims that philosophers and laypersons should not adopt one theory, say utilitarianism, for one purpose or in one context and another theory, say Kantian deontology, for another purpose or in another context ( this would be theoretical pluralism ).

Callicott ’ s justification for this claim is an analysis based on the following criteria for tenability: self-consistency ; comprehensiveness ; self-correction ; universality ; and beauty.

* J. Baird Callicott ( Philosophy Department, 1965 – 94 ) – founder of academic environmental ethics discipline ; now at the University of North Texas

Callicott began his career as an academic philosopher in 1966 at Memphis State University ( now the University of Memphis ).

Callicott supports a holistic, non-anthropocentric environmental ethic which is in accordance with Leopold's view that " A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.

J. Baird Callicott is an American philosopher whose work has been at the forefront of the new field of environmental philosophy and ethics.

Callicott held the position of Professor of Philosophy and Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point from 1969 to 1995, where he taught the world ’ s first course in environmental ethics in 1971.

Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac is one of environmental philosophy ’ s seminal texts, and Callicott is widely considered to be the leading contemporary exponent of Leopold's land ethic.

Callicott ’ s Earth ’ s Insights ( 1994 ) is also considered an important contribution to the budding field of comparative environmental philosophy ; a special edition of the journal Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion ( Vol.

For 26 years, Callicott lived and taught in the northern reaches of Wisconsin's sand counties, located on the Wisconsin River, just ninety miles from Aldo Leopold's storied shack and John Muir's first homestead on Fountain Lake, the region that stirred the souls of two very influential environmental thinkers.

It is wrong when it tends otherwise " — Callicott espouses a holistic, non-anthropocentric environmental ethic.

Callicott believes that an adequate environmental ethic — an environmental-ethics paradigm that addresses actual environmental concerns — must be holistic.

The distinctiveness of environmental ethics turns on the question of non-anthropocentrism, and that question turns on the question of nature ’ s intrinsic value, according to Callicott.

Callicott ’ s comparative environmental philosophy also involves a tightrope walk between pluralism and monism.

Most recent criticisms have been leveled at Callicott ’ s works addressing the idea of wilderness, the sanctum sanctorum of the twentieth-century environmental movement.

In 1969, Callicott joined the philosophy department of Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point ( now the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point ).

Callicott instead proposes that, because wilderness areas serve purposes of biological conservation, they should be reconceived more fittingly as “ biodiversity reserves .”

In response, Callicott offered two second-order principles as a framework to adjudicate between conflicting first-order duties: 1 ) “ obligations generated by membership in more venerable and intimate communities take precedence over those generated in more recently emerged and impersonal communities ”; 2 ) “ stronger interests take precedence over duties generated by weaker interests .” Because our various human community memberships are both more venerable and intimate and because human interests in enjoying rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are very strong, Callicott argues that our traditional obligations to individual fellow human beings trump our obligations to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community — at least, he believes, when it comes to the prospect of culling members of the overpopulous Homo sapiens species.

Callicott is co-Editor-in-Chief with Robert Frodeman of the award-winning, two-volume A-Z Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, published by Macmillan in 2009.

“ Callicott, J. Baird 1941 –.” Pages 129-130 in J. Baird Callicott and Robert Frodeman, eds., Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy.

Land, Value, and Community: Callicott and Environmental Philosophy, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

* Nelson, Michael P. ( 2005 ) “ Callicott, J. Baird ( 1941 -).” Pages 252-254 in Bron Taylor and Jeffrey Kaplan, eds., Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature.

Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion ( Special Theme Issue on J. Baird Callicott ’ s Earth ’ s Insights ).