User:Bwilliston/sandbox

= Byron Williston = Byron Williston (born 1965) is a Canadian philosopher. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and has taught previously in the Philosophy departments of the University of Toronto and the University of South Florida. He is Professor of Philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier University and a Member of the Waterloo Climate Institute at the University of Waterloo. Although his published work ranges across a wide variety of philosophical topics (including weakness of will, nihilism and geoengineering ), Williston's webpage at Laurier declares that his current work is focused on the "ethical and political complexities" of climate change. In 2011, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Canadian Parliament for the Green Party of Canada in the riding of Kitchener-Centre.

Main Ideas
Williston's The Anthropocene Project (2015), is the first ever book-length treatment of the issue of climate change from the perspective of virtue ethics. He argues that in attempting to come to grips with the climate crisis we should cultivate three virtues: justice, truthfulness and hope. As in typical in the virtue-ethical tradition, the focus is on the sorts of people we should be rather than on the actions we ought to perform. Thus, we should cultivate the virtue of justice so that our policies are more open to the claims of those whose lives will be most adversely affected by the impacts of climate change; we should cultivate truthfulness to steel ourselves against the many sources of misinformation regarding the climate crisis; and we should cultivate hope to help counter the climate anxiety that is becoming so prevalent. In a review article, American environmental philosopher Dale Jamieson writes that Williston's book is "generous, well-written and careful argued." Jamieson goes on to say that "by relating his discussion to 'mainstream' ethics, action theory and moral philosophy, Williston provides an excellent bridge for philosophers, from the familiar literature of their discipline to the facts about climate change. For environmentalists and others with little experience in philosophy, the book bears powerful witness to the relevance of our discipline." Another review of the book states that "Williston presents a novel and compelling thesis which builds on research across many disciplines and provides refreshing insight into some less prominent areas of debate," adding that the book is "an excellent addition to the climate change literature and is open to a wide audience."

In his next monograph Williston develops these themes further, while extending his theoretical focus beyond virtue ethics. In Philosophy and the Climate Crisis: How the Past Can Save the Present (2021), he argues that because climate change is a crisis of world-historical significance we can benefit from a deeper understanding of how humanity has faced past crises. What's more, we can learn from the way specific philosophers from the past responded to these crises through re-imagining the way we organize ourselves collectively. For example, Plato wrote The Republic, in part, as a way of coming to terms with the devastating effects of the Peloponnesian War on Greek political culture. One of his insights in that book is that the best society should be governed by the knowers. This is the first articulation of the idea of epistocracy, the claim that expertise should be highly valued in governance. Given the attacks on climate science by climate change deniers, Williston argues that this is a lesson that is relevant to our times. He then makes analogous claims about St. Augustine, Descartes, Spinoza and Hegel. American philosopher Steven Nadler praised the book as "an accessible and engaging analysis of the ways in which the climate crisis is analogous to other, historically significant 'traumas.'" Nadler adds that this "is a vitally important topic and I applaud Williston for his creative approach to bringing its philosophical aspects to a broad readership."

Williston has also written two textbooks. The first is, The Ethics of Climate Change: An Introduction, second edition (2023). This book was described by University of Oxford philosopher Henry Shue as "an exceptionally comprehensive and judicious exploration of an ominously important cluster of issues, embedding rigorous but lucid philosophical arguments in the non-ideal political realities of the fraught international negotiations." Shue adds that, "I know of nothing else this engaging for introductory or intermediate students." The second textbook is, Environmental Ethics for Canadians, third edition (2023), described by the former dean of the The Faculty of Environment at Simon Fraser University, Ingrid Leman Stefanovic, as "unique amongst environmental ethics textbooks in that it both is comprehensive in scope and explicitly addresses environmental issues--from theory to practice--that are of pressing concern to Canadians."

Books
Williston, Byron''. The Anthropocene Project: Virtue in the Age of Climate Change''. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Williston, Byron. Canadian Environmental Philosophy (edited, with C. Tyler DesRoches and Frank Jankunis). McGill-Queens University Press, 2019.

Williston, Byron. Philosophy and the Climate Crisis: How the Past Can Save the Present. Routledge, 2021.

Williston, Byron. Environmental Ethics for Canadians, third edition. Oxford University Press, 2023.

Williston, Byron. The Ethics of Climate Change: An Introduction, second edition. Routledge, 2023.

Public Philosophy
"The Case Against Mars." Boston Review

"The Ethical Core of the Sustainable Development Goals." SDG Online

"A Plea for Rapprochement." The Tyee

"An Ornery Beast." Dublin Review of Books

"Thrown Together: The New Politics of the Land." The Trouble

"Debating Climate Ethics." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Climate Change and the Syrian Refugee Crisis." OUP Blog

"Is Canada's Oil Ethical?" Impact Ethics