Charles Taylor's Ecological Conversations Politics, Commonalities and the Natural Environment

Central to the argument of the book are Charles Taylor's perspectives on authenticity and expressivism, which the author reads as a radical reworking of our understanding of being in the world and a starting point for rethinking the way individuals and communities ought to be dealing politically with ecological crises. Glen Lehman uses Taylor's work on liberalism, interpretivism and socialism to construct a bridge between democratic, ethical and ecological perspectives. The bridge developed involves a fusion between liberal and interpretivist ideas, establishing a common ground through which different values are addressed. Such a fusion of perspectives acts in a spirit that moderates the dominant anthropocentric attitude toward the natural environment.

Glen Lehman is Associate Professor in the School of Commerce, University of South Australia. He has published over 70 scholarly articles in a range of prestigious journals: Philosophy and Social Criticism, Journal of Business Ethics, Critical Perspectives on Accounting and Journal of Corporate Citizenship. Professor Lehman is a member of the British Political Studies Association as well as the British, American and Australian Accounting Associations.

PART I
1. Introduction
2. Basic Issues in Taylor's Philosophy
3. Taylor's Interpretivism, Knowledge and the Natural Environment
4. Taylor's Interpretivism, Social Imaginaries and the Natural Environment
5. Taylor's Metaphysics, Merleau-Ponty and the Natural Environment
PART II
6. Taylor's Environmentalism and Critique of Utilitarianism and Instrumental Reason
7. Taylor's Critique of Instrumentalism, Liberalism and Procedure in Politics
8. Interpretation, Language and Environmental Values: The Habermas and Taylor Debate
9. Critical Perspectives: The Taylor-Rorty Debate
10. Taylor and Deep Ecology
11. Critical Environmentalism: Marx to Taylor's Interpretivism
12. Conclusion