Abstract

For many members of contemporary western societies, the environment is either the theatre upon which we plan and play out our own aspirations, or a basket of resources from which to extract, produce and commercialize consumable ‘goods.’ Infrequently noticed, thought about, or cared for in any substantive way, it is merely the theatre upon which we plan and play out our own aspirations. The same might be said of many ‘sustainability enterprises,’ as the environment is taken, quite literally, as a place-less basket of resources from which to extract, produce and commercialize consumable ‘goods. There is a need, then, for continued work in reframing how we see, interact with, and respond to the environment.Within the world of environmental conservation, one powerful tool employed to motivate care for the environment is drawn from the field of aesthetics. The attractive qualities of the natural world have long played a crucial role in shaping environmental policy and public concern. Even a cursory overview of the history of conservation work amply demonstrates the motivational leverage of beauty in stimulating significant change to environmental policy and even societal values. However, reliance upon the aesthetic realm also holds its own set of difficulties; employed as a designator of value, it can be overly anthropocentric, exclusionary and unjust, and its ethical purchase weak. What, then, are we to do with beauty and the aesthetic realm? Is it extraneous, representative of elitist ephemera, and even damaging in its influence upon ethical questions?Against those who are critical of the use of aesthetics in environmental ethics, I take the position that drawing upon aesthetics is crucial if we hope to change human behavior. However, in a departure from the use of aesthetics as a designator of value in service of environmental ethics, I argue that the aesthetic-moral notion of ‘fittingness,’ useful for its familiarity in everyday language, holds normative potential for directing our manner of seeing and relating to the world around us. It holds particular value for the manner in which it directs attention to the local ecology, and challenges our manner of being within that ecology, or, more specifically, an ecological neighborhood. As such, the structure of decorum holds interesting potential for informing a more just and democratic approach to questions of sustainability.