Adjudicating the Debate Over Two Models of Nature Appreciation

This essay confronts the issue of the appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature and offer an overview of a contemporary debate on the topic, beginning with a general discussion of art and nature appreciation. Kendall Walton's theory of appropriate art appreciation and his skepticism regarding the possibility of appropriate and inappropriate nature appreciation are explored. Next, two models of nature appreciation are considered, and according to both Walton is mistaken. These models are defended by Allen Carlson and Noël Carrol and they illustrate a broader range or how nature appreciation can be properly considered appropriate or inappropriate. It may seem that given the recent proliferation of models of nature appreciation, the last thing we should seek is yet another model. However, this essay argues the need for a new and different kind of model, one that is a revisionist and extensionist model of nature appreciation.