Leopold, Hadley, and Darwin: Darwinian Epistemology, Truth and Right

It has been argued in this journal (Callicott, et.al., 2009) that the evidence advanced that Aldo Leopold was influenced by American Pragmatism is “imaginary,” and that apparent textual evidence that Leopold learned key ideas from A.T. Hadley, President of Yale University and a self-avowed Pragmatist, can be explained away. It is shown that Callicott, et. al. misunderstand pragmatism, misunderstand what environmental pragmatists have attributed to Leopold, fail to understand either the context or the internal argument of Leopold’s “Conservation as a Moral Issue.” Consequently, they miss important contributions that Leopold made to the philosophy of conservation.

• Bryan Norton

• Ethics and Philosophy of Science and Technology

• School of Public Policy