Intro; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; About the Author; List of Figures; The History of Ecology; 1 Introduction: The Idea of Ecology; References; 2 Ecological Thinking in the Western Tradition; 2.1 Protoecology; 2.1.1 Ontological Pregnancy of Biotic Communities; 2.1.2 Natural History; 2.1.3 Arcadianism; 2.2 Modern Ecology; 2.2.1 Normative Ecology; 2.2.2 Scientific Ecology; 2.3 Conclusion: Five Features of the Idea of Ecology; 2.3.1 Naturalism; 2.3.2 Ontological Interconnectedness; 2.3.3 Holism; 2.3.4 Nonanthropocentrism; 2.3.5 Ecological Justice; References

The Metaphysics of Ecology3 Entities in Patterned Process; 3.1 Mechanism; 3.1.1 The Mechanical View of Nature; 3.1.2 The Organism as Machine; 3.2 Organicism; 3.2.1 Continuities in Nature; 3.2.2 Discontinuities in Nature; 3.2.3 Beauty in Nature; 3.2.4 Teleonomy and Teleomaty; 3.3 Ecological Entities and Process; 3.3.1 Ecological Entities; 3.3.2 Ecological Process; 3.4 Four Ontologies of the Ecological Entity; 3.4.1 The Superorganism; 3.4.2 The Coincidental Assemblage; 3.4.3 The Ecosystem; 3.4.4 The Stochastic Community; 3.5 Conclusion; References; 4 Patterned Process in Biological Evolution

4.1 One Long Argument: The Theory of Descent with Modifications Through Natural Selection4.2 The Evolution of Metaphysics; 4.3 The Adaptation Debate; 4.4 Ecosystem Ecology, Evolutionary Ecology, and Integrative Ecology; 4.4.1 Ecosystem Ecology; 4.4.2 Evolutionary Ecology; 4.4.3 Integrative Ecology; 4.5 Conclusion; References; 5 Reductionism, Holism, and Hierarchy Theory; 5.1 Reductionism; 5.2 Holism; 5.3 Hierarchy Theory; 5.3.1 Koestler; 5.3.2 Nested, Nonnested, and Unified Hierarchies; 5.3.3 Applied Hierarchy Theory; 5.4 Conclusion; References; The Epistemology of Ecology

6 Realism or Relativism?6.1 Cartesian Realism: The Supernatural Subject; 6.2 Cultural Relativism: The Social Construction of Knowledge; 6.2.1 Wissenssoziologie; 6.2.2 Foucauldianism; 6.2.3 Kuhnianism; 6.3 The Sociology of Ecological Wisdom; 6.3.1 The Social Construction of Nature; 6.3.2 Scientific Ecology as Social Institution; 6.4 Phenomenology of Intentionality; 6.5 Conclusion; References; 7 From Empiricism and Rationalism to Kant and Nietzsche; 7.1 Empiricism; 7.1.1 Inductive Empiricism; 7.1.2 Hume's Critique of Inductive Empiricism; 7.2 Rationalism; 7.2.1 Population Mathematics

7.2.2 Biogeography Theory7.2.3 Systems Modeling; 7.3 Kantianism; 7.3.1 Immanuel Kant; 7.3.2 Karl Popper; 7.4 Nietzschean Perspectivism; 7.5 Conclusion; References; The Normativity of Ecology; 8 Ethics of Ecology; 8.1 Environmental Metaethics: Bridging the Is/Ought Gap; 8.1.1 The Is/Ought Diremptionists; 8.1.2 Aldo Leopold; 8.1.3 J. Baird Callicott; 8.2 Environmental Normative Ethics: Reading the Land; 8.2.1 Aristotelian Virtue Ethics; 8.2.2 Environmental Hermeneutics; 8.3 Three Models for Ecological Ethics; 8.3.1 Ecocentrism; 8.3.2 Nonanthropocentrism; 8.3.3 Nonegalitarianism; 8.4 Conclusion