The solace Anthony Weston found over the years spending time outdoors provided the philosophy professor with inspiration for his latest book, The Incompleat Eco-Philosopher, a collection of essays that examine the ethics behind environmental action.
Published this winter by the SUNY Press, the book is a follow-up to his 1994 Back to Earth: Tomorrow’s Environmentalism and chronicles his experiences and academic research over the last 15 years. Chapters explore topics such as evolution, teaching principles and ethics.
Weston embraces the “incomplete” nature of his work, as he feels eco-philosophy is an ongoing discovery process.
“I don’t think we’re in any position to say or know exactly what to do,” says Weston, who joined the Elon faculty in 1992. “We’ve barely just begun the process of figuring it out.”
Weston shares his ecological perspectives with students by promoting forward-thinking discussion in classes such as “Environmental Visions” and “Millennial Imagination.” He is also known to stimulate new ideas among his fellow faculty members.
“Having Anthony Weston as a colleague means that you get to encounter a wildly playful mind on a regular basis,” says Ann Cahill, associate professor of philosophy and chair of the department. “Conversations with Anthony are adventurous, humorous, and always enlightening, and never more so than when they center on relations between the human and the more than human.
“Let me put it this way: he made me seriously reconsider my practice of killing bugs. And that took some doing.”
Weston hints at the possibility of a follow-up compilation to his latest work. Regardless of the next step, Weston said, he will continue to view the world through the lens of his unique perspective. “A lot of philosophers think of the environment in a very formal way,” he said. “For me it is much more about the world – how we act in it and how it actually is.”
Growing up in rural Wisconsin, Weston looked to nature to capture his imagination. In the midst of the environmental consciousness movements of the 1960s and 70s, he felt he would be well suited as an environmental lawyer.
Weston changed his career path upon discovering what the field of philosophy had to offer. “Philosophy allowed me to think and talk about the things I wanted to think about,” he said.
Weston, recipient of the 2007 Distinguished Scholar Award at the university, has written eleven books and has authored more than 50 articles that have been published in scholarly journals such Environmental Ethics, the Journal of Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Education.
In 2002, Weston received the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching, the university’s top teaching award. This fall, Weston spent a semester educating Elon students in Costa Rica. This mirrors another international opportunity in 2004, when Weston was invited to serve as a visiting professor of ecological philosophy at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
Beyond his duties as a faculty member, Weston found time to immerse himself in the Australian wild.
“I would go with my family and students way back in the bush where it feels like another planet,” recalls Weston. “To the American eye it looks barren, but to those who live there, it’s paradise.”
– Robert Hoppey ’09
