About the Cluster
The Language of Conservation Project is a UC Santa Cruz, interdisciplinary initiative that seeks a radical change in how we talk and think about the value of life in all its diverse, natural forms. The initiative is motivated by the suspicion of program directors, Claudio Campagna and Daniel Guevara, that the discourse that has dominated world-class conservation for the last three decades has undermined well-meaning efforts to promote biodiversity, because it operates primarily with the politically expedient language of sustainable development. It is the language of economics applied to nature, which is a language incapable of comprehending the value of life, except for its value as an instrument to human development. According to Campagna and Guevara, if we are to attain an authentically ethical relationship to nature, we must carefully consider what Wittgenstein says about philosophy in general: that it is a “battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of our language.” Conservation scientists, activists, philosophers and academics from a wide variety of disciplines, literary figures, students, and policy makers must work together to push through the current limits of our language and to articulate what Aldo Leopold called “values as yet uncaptured by language.”
It is our vision to establish a world-renowned version of our project at UCSC. We want UCSC to become the center for the discussion of how language affects nature conservation thinking. We need to create a constituency that will increase the scope and influence of our efforts.
UC Santa Cruz Faculty and Student Participants
Daniel Guevara, Chair and Associate Professor of Philosophy
Claudio Campagna, Adjunct Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology;
Conservation Biologist, Wildlife Conservation Society
T.J. Demos, Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture and Director of the Center for
Creative Ecologies
Nathaniel Deutsch, Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Humanities
Research
Janette Dinishak, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Jonnathan Ellis, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Public
Philosophy
James Estes, Adjunct Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Member
of the US Academy of Sciences
Jennifer Gonzalez, Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture
Miriam Greenberg, Professor of Sociology
Sean Hunter, Doctoral Student in Philosophy
Henry Highton, Doctoral Student in Literature
Paul Koch, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Dean of Natural Sciences
Burney Le Boeuf, Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Travis Raymond, Doctoral Student in Philosophy
Kyle Robertson, Assistant Director of the Center for Public Philosophy
Paul Roth, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
Laurie Palmer, Professor of Art
Warren Sack, Professor of Film and Digital Media
Beth Shapiro, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Events
May 4, 2018 – The Language of Conservation: In Search of “Values as Yet Uncaptured by Language”
April 14, 2017 – Ethics and Language of Conservation Colloquium
April 20, 2017 – Humanities Earth Day
April 29, 2017 – Alumni Weekend 2017: Ethics and the Language of Conservation
More Information
For more information visit the Center for Public Philosophy
Videos & Radio
Interview with Claudio Campagna talking about his journey as an animal behaviorist to researching the philosophy of the environmental movement.
Fast forward to minute 16:45 for the Language of Conservation presentation.