Featured Earth Day Speaker: Holmes Rolston III
The Future of Environmental Ethics
Holmes Rolston III
CSU Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and 2003 Templeton Prize Recipient
April 22, 1:30 PM
University Center Panorama Room
Speaking engagement and book signing
Ticket information
Tickets are FREE, but must be obtained in advance. Tickets available now. Call (970) 351-4TIX or in person go to the University Center Information Desk for your free ticket. Limited seating available.
Biography
Holmes Rolston, III, is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University. Unanimously regarded as a founder of the field of environmental ethics, his work and efforts on behalf of the environment have been honored in many ways. Highlighting his many accomplishments in this field, he was awarded the 2003 Templeton Prize Laureate. The Templeton Prize honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works. Established in 1972 by the late Sir John Templeton, the Prize aims, in his words, to identify "entrepreneurs of the spirit"—outstanding individuals who have devoted their talents to expanding our vision of ultimate purpose and reality.
Rolston has published literally hundreds of scholarly and other essays, along with several major books. His collection of essays, Philosophy Gone Wild includes philosophical and natural history essays, as well as spiritual reflections on nature. In 1986, he presented his full-blown theory of natural intrinsic value in his Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World. In working out that theory, Rolston argues that natural value includes but goes beyond the value of individual organisms; he posited a new concept, systemic value, to account for the value he and others claim for ecosystems. His other books include Conserving Natural Value and the earlier Science and Nature. Genes, Genesis, and God contains his 1997-98 Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Edinburgh.
Book Signing
After the presentation, Rolston biographer Christopher J. Preston will sign copies of his recently released "Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston, III," copies of which will be available for purchase.
Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston, III, Christopher J. Preston (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2009).
“Saving Creation is a beautifully written biography of the renowned environmental ethicist Holmes Rolston. Here we are invited into a remarkable journey of philosophical depth and spiritual struggle. Indeed the story of Rolston’s intellectual and personal formation provides insight beyond one individual into a new human awakening of our moral response to the natural world in which we dwell.”
- Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University Forum on Religion and Ecology