GEOGRAPHY, PARADOX AND ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

As a diverse and divided discipline, geography embodies tensions centr al to the paradoxical nature of human dwelling on earth, from which qu estions of environmental ethics arise. The article reviews major ontol ogical and epistemological tensions within geography - that between na ture and culture, and objectivism and subjectivism - emphasizing the w ays in which common resolutions to these tensions often represent flaw ed strategies of avoiding paradox. It then connects these tensions to important philosophical dimensions of environmental ethics. I argue th at normative environmental ethics must be built on an adequate sensiti vity to the nature/culture tension, and that environmental meta-ethics - specifically, the problem of relativism as applied to environmental discourse - must be similarly informed by the object/subject tension. The most fundamental contribution geography fan make, therefore, lies in establishing a philosophical space for environmental ethics that t akes paradox seriously and avoids its simplistic resolutions.