Environmental ethics and the development of landscape architectural theory

Landscape architecture is a profession which intervenes in the environment for a variety of social, aesthetic and environmental motives, yet the values which underlie such interventions have received little in the way of serious philosophical investigation. This paper seeks to examine the position of landscape architecture as a discipline and a profession with regard to the competing theories of environmental ethics which have emerged in the second half of this century. The first part of the paper provides a map of the general ethical territory, paying particular attention to the anthropocentric/nonanthropocentric and ecocentric/technocentric dimensions of these theories. The second part suggests that landscape architecture has always been firmly within the anthropocentric camp, despite the writings of theorists such as Hackett and McHarg who have advocated an ‘ecological approach’. The third section describes attempts at the philosophical level to reconcile the anthropological and nonanthropolog‐ical viewpoints. The concluding section looks at similar moves towards a reconciliation at the levels of policy and practice, paying particular attention to the ideas of ‘ecological humanism’ and the concept of ‘sustainable development’. Some of the ethical and aesthetic implications of sustainability for landscape architecture are explored.