DEEP ECOLOGY AND THE IRRELEVANCE OF MORALITY

Both Arne Naess and Warwick Fox have argued that deep ecology, in term s of ''Self-realization,'' is essentially nonmoral. I argue that the a ttainment of the ecological Self does not render morality in the riche st sense ''superfluous,'' as Fox suggests. To the contrary, the achiev ement of the ecological Self is a precondition for being a truly moral person, both from the perspective of a robust Kantian moral framework and from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics. The oppositio n between self-regard and morality is a false one. The two are the sam e. The ecological philosophy of Naess and Fox is an environmental ethi c in the grand tradition of moral philosophy.