g an industrialized, technological society that has as a positive moral value the progress of the greatest number of its people, he also argues for responsible stewardship of nature that includes behaving as if public policy decisions about wilderness were to be transmuted into irrevocable laws of the universe.
There have always been different points of view about the virtues of the wilderness experience, even over the use of common terms in the debate. Martin (1976) sets forth a frame of reference in the form of a curriculum on wilderness preservation. His approach may be described as preservationist, and he seeks to put it into historical perspective. He identifies two broad themes of American environmental philosophy: transcendental, identified with John Muir, and conservational, identified with Aldo Leopold. He also describes utilitarian and nonutilitarian features of environmental debate. Utilitarian elements, which account for the greatest social (human) good, include cost-benefit analyses of development vs. preservation and the presumption of rights of nature. Nonutilitarian, or perhaps more exactly moral-ethical features include aesthetic concerns and the Kantian idea that good stewardship of the land by humanity will inhere in benefits to humanity, but that the stewardship is more important than the benefits.
Oelschlaeger (1991) cites philosophical foundations of modernism as the Greeks, Aquinas, Descartes, and Bacon, chiefly owing to their focus on reason or scientific development as the highest and best use of human intellect. This assertion has been taken up by other commentators; Attfield argues that Western philosophy in particular diminishes the philosophical credibility associated with "taking nature seriously" and that "the history of philosophy has discouraged preservationist attitudes" (Attfield, 1991, p. 127). He says that preservationist attitudes should inform contemporary philosophy and the ethics of enviro...