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person1887-1948

Aldo Leopold

Disciplines:
philosophy/environmental philosophy
ethics
ecology

Summary

American ecologist and conservationist who developed the land ethic — the extension of moral community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals — and founded the science of wildlife management.

Core Contribution

The land ethic: a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community; it is wrong when it tends otherwise. Expanded the scope of ethics from persons to the entire biotic community.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Shot a wolf, watched it die, and saw the fierce green fire in its eyes fade — this experience convinced him that predators are ecologically essential, reversing his earlier predator control advocacy.
  • Died of a heart attack fighting a brushfire on a neighbor's farm — four days after learning his book A Sand County Almanac had been accepted for publication.

Notable Works & Achievements

A Sand County Almanac

Game Management

Round River

Historical Influences

John Muir Charles Darwin P. D. Ouspensky

Intellectual Lineage

Conservation Movement American Naturalism Darwinian Biology

Contemporaries & Peers

John Muir Robert Marshall

Minds Influenced

Deep Ecology Environmental Ethics Conservation Biology

Intellectual Posterity

Environmental Ethics Deep Ecology Land Ethic

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Aldo Leopold

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