A constructionist defence of environmental ethics: the case of the Swiss hunter

Abstract. Castree argues that, due to implicit and explicit forms of material essentialism within many environmental ethicist arguments, a post-environmental ethics may be inevitable. The purpose of this article was to examine this claim by putting authors Castree and Proctor into a dialogue, situated within the social context of hunting in Switzerland, with the aim of navigating a path beyond the ontological mine field that environmental ethics has recently become. The results show that the critique that Castree offers can be turned into a mode of enquiry that highlights the need for environmental ethics to move beyond normative prescription to normative description. Such a move, as highlighted by the case of the Swiss hunter, allows for enquiry into how environmental ethics are socially discussed and produced, as well as offering avenues in which to interrogate and make sense of the different ways that people understand and interact with the natural world.