Greg Cooper Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

Greg Cooper

cooperg@wlu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Professor Cooper joined Washington and Lee in 1999 as Director of the Society and the Professions Program in Ethics and subsequently moved full-time into the Philosophy Department in 2011. He previously taught at SUNY Potsdam and Duke University.

Professor Cooper's research interests are wide-ranging. They include the history and philosophy of ecology, the subject of his book The Science of the Struggle for Existence: On the Foundations of Ecology, and the philosophy of biology more generally. He also works in the general area of environmental philosophy, including topics such as environmental ethics, ecosystem health and integrity, environmental economics, and environmental aesthetics. His work in applied ethics goes beyond environmental ethics to include medical ethics and legal ethics. Finally, he is currently engaged in research on the ecology of the freshwater fishes of the Amazon basin.

Education

Ph.D. Philosophy, University of Minnesota
B.A. Philosophy, University of Wisconsin

Teaching

Professional and Normative Ethics, Public Policy, Philosophy of Science (esp. Ecology)

Selected Publications

Books

The Science of the Struggle for Existence: On the Foundations of Ecology. Cambridge University Press, 2003

Philosophical Issues in Ecological Ethics. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Kyrgyz State National University Center for Graduate Study, 1999 (in Russian)

Book Chapters

  1. “Integrity and Zeal”, in Dare, Tim, and W. Bradley Wendel, eds., Legal Ethics and Personal Integrity, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (forthcoming)
  2. “Hypothetical Preferences and Environmental Policy,” in Alberini, Anna, and James R. Kahn, eds., Handbook on Contingent Valuation, Edward Elgar, 2006: 116-132.
  3. “Ecosystem Management, Environmental Values, and Lake Issyk Kul”, in Klerkx, Jan, ed., Lake Issyk Kul: Its Natural Environment, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002: 269-81
  4. “Aldo Leopold and the Values of the Native”, in Vitek, William, and Wes Jackson, eds. Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place, Yale University Press, 1996: 150-162

Articles

  1. “The Role of Payments for Ecological Services in the Sustainable Development and Environmental Preservation of the Rainforest: A Case Study of Barcelos, Amazonas, BR”, International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development, 4(3), 13-27, July – September 2013 (co-authored with Rivas, Alexandre A.F., Kahn, James R., Freitas,Carlos Edwar, and Hurd, Lawrence E.)
  2. “A Modern Legal Ethics on the Substantive Justification of the Lawyer’s Role and its Implications for Professional Practice,” Legal Ethics, vol. 13, no 2, December 2010.
  3. “Must There Be a Balance of Nature?”, Biology and Philosophy 16 (2001): 481-516
  4. “Teleology and Environmental Ethics”, American Philosophical Quarterly 35 (1998): 195-207
  5. “Generalizations in Ecology: A Philosophical Taxonomy”, Biology and Philosophy 13 (1998): 555-586
  6. “Theoretical Modeling and Biological Laws”, in Darden, L., ed., Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Supplement to Philosophy of Science, Vol. 63 (1996): 28-35
  7. “Towards a Genuine Dialogue Between Ecology and Philosophy of Science”, review essay in Ecology 76 (1996): 974-977

 

Encyclopedia Entries

  1. “Philosophy of Ecology”, in Callicott, J. Baird, and Robert Frodeman, eds., Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethic and Philosophy, Macmillan (forthcoming)
  2. “Community Ecology”, in Callicott, J. Baird, and Robert Frodeman, eds., Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethic and Philosophy, Macmillan (forthcoming)
  3. “Ecology”, Callicott, J. Baird, and Robert Frodeman, eds., Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethic and Philosophy, Macmillan (forthcoming)