Forward: Philosophy Into Practice

Ethics and the Environment, 4(2):127-129 Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. ISSN: 1085-6633 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. Andrew Light Forward: Philosophy Into Practice Most of the papers in the following special section originated from a conference held April 2-A, 1998, at the University of Montana called "Ecofeminism: A Practical Environmental Philosophy for the 21st Century." The conference was sponsored by Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE, under the leadership of Bryony Schwan), an ecofeminist activist organization in Missoula, Montana; the University of Montana Departments of Philosophy, Environmental Studies, and Women's Studies; the Practical Ethics Center (under the directorship of Deni Elliot); and in part (supporting the participation at the conference of Françoise d'Eaubonne), the Montana Committee for the Humanities. The conference was dedicated to the memory of Bella Abzug, feminist activist and congresswoman, who died two days before the start of the meeting. The principal co-organizers of the conference were myself (when I was a member of the philosophy department at Montana) and Bryony Schwan at WVE. Papers and presentations were made by: Jill Belsky (sociology, Montana), Albert Borgmann (philosophy , Montana), Connie BullÃ-s and Lincoln Houde (communications, Utah), Victoria Davion (philosophy, Georgia), Françoise d'Eaubonne (Paris), Irene Diamond and David Seidenberg (political science, Oregon, and Jewish Theological Seminary), Greta Gaard (Fairhaven College, Western Washington), Lori Gruen (philosophy, Stanford), Marti Kheel (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley), Andrew Light (now philosophy and environmental studies, SUNY Binghamton and NYU), Kari Marie Norgaard (sociology, Oregon), VaI Plumwood (philosophy, Sydney), Christopher Preston, (now philosophy and environmental studies, South Carolina), Joni Seager (geography and women's studies, Vermont) Deborah Slicer (philosophy, Montana), Direct all correspondence to: Andrew Light, International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University , 53 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012-1098; E-mail 127 128 ETHICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT Vol. 4, No. 2,1999 Nöel Sturgeon (American studies, Washington State), Karen Warren (philosophy, Macalester), and Louisa Willcox (Wild Forever). By most accounts, the conference was a success, especially in terms of the number of people who came out to the meeting from the local community, in addition to the academic audience. It may seem odd to many to see this conglomeration of different groups on a university campus and in the community working together to put on a conference like this one. After all, many people have ample experience with the huge gulfs which often separate practical activism from the theoretical work of philosophers and social scientists. Part of the success of this participation came from the unique character of Missoula, a town known for its large activist population and home to a higher concentration of environmental organizations per capita than almost any other city in the United States. But simply putting on a conference of interest to an academic and activist audience is one thing; getting people to come is quite another. The success of the participation of the local community in the conference had more to do with the co-sponsorship of the meeting by WVE, and the work of Bryony Schwan, than anything else. For those interested in creating more events that are of broader interest than to just the philosophical community, the most important lesson learned from this meeting was to get the community involved in the project from the beginning. The partnership of WVE in the community and the philosophy department on campus from the start made this a much more dynamic and stimulating process. Still, with this success in drawing out a crowd, a theme emerged at the conference that academics need to change the way they speak in order to reach out to more people. This message came home at the closing session of the conference (featuring Seager and Willcox and moderated by Schwan) when the issue was raised about how well the philosophers at the meeting had responded to the presence of such a broad and diverse audience. Fm afraid that on some accounts we scored rather low, and that to some degree an opportunity for real dialogue with an activist community was missed this time around. Even while progress was made on some debates that have been long...