The Concept of Landscape and Sustainability

In recent debates in ecology and environmental philosophy, the concept of landscape has been criticized and distrusted. One reason behind this is that aesthetic judgments of landscapes are often not in harmony with ecological concerns; for instance, damaged or polluted landscapes are sometimes judged as beautiful. In response to these critiques, I argue that a philosophical concept of the landscape can help us understand our relationship with nature and potentially facilitate the development of a more sustainable nature. To this end, I first draw from the definition of landscape proposed by the Italian philosopher Rosario Assunto, who understood landscape as a concrete encounter between humans and their biological and cultural environments. I then connect this understanding of the landscape to the recently developed concept of aesthetic sustainability, demonstrating that the aesthetics and ecology of a landscape need not stand in opposition.