Dr Holmes Rolston III HonFISSR

University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
Colorado State University

Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

Biography

Dr. Holmes Rolston III is widely recognized as the father of environmental ethics as a modern academic discipline. He has devoted his career to the development of a philosophical interpretation of the natural world and is regarded as one of the world's leading scholars on the philosophical, scientific, and religious conceptions of nature. His body of work and his role as a founder of the journal Environmental Ethics have been instrumental in establishing, shaping, and defining the modern discipline of environmental philosophy. He studied physics as an undergraduate at Davidson College, then entered theological seminary and completed a Ph.D. in theology at Edinburgh University, Scotland, in 1958. He then worked for some years as a Presbyterian pastor before taking a master's degree in philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh.
An academic appointment in philosophy followed at Colorado State University, where he became a full professor in 1976. Amongst his many publications are Philosophy Gone Wild (1986), Environmental Ethics (1988), and Conserving Natural Value (1994). Rolston has also written in philosophy of science and religion more generally, including his 1987 book Science and Religion: A Critical Survey, new edition in 2006. He gave the Gifford Lectures, Edinburgh, in 1997-1998, published as Genes, Genesis, and God (1999). He was awarded the Templeton Prize in religion in 2003. Rolston is one of the founders of the journal Environmental Ethics, where he is currently an associate editor, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of other journals, including Environmental Values and Zygon. He currently holds the position of University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University.

Honoraria Titles

Major Prizes

Publications

Science and Religion - A Critical Survey,

Templeton Foundation Press, 2006 new edition, 20th anniversary reprinting, with new introductory chapter, "Human Uniqueness and Human Responsibility."

Environmental Ethics: An Anthology,

Blackwells 2003
Co-authors: Light, Andrew and Holmes Rolston, III.,

Genes, Genesis and God: Values and their Origins in Natural and Human History,

Cambridge University Press, 1999. Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, 1997-1998. Chinese translation.
www.hnstp.com

Environmental Ethics: Values in and Duties to the Natural World,

Temple University Press 1988. Chinese translation.

Ed: Biology, Ethics, and the Origins of Life,

Jones and Bartlett, 1995, Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1997

Conserving Natural Value,

Columbia University Press, 1994, published in electronic format by Columbia University Press Online Books, 1997

Philosophy Gone Wild,

Prometheus Books, 1986. A collection of essays in environmental ethics. Paperbound edition 1989. Chinese translation.