Instrumentalism Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Broadly speaking , the term instrumentalism is a view that all ideas (theories, laws, concepts, beliefs, identities, and so on) have value beyond their precision or ability to espouse truths. Instead, ideas hold value as instruments serving a larger purpose or agenda. Instrumentalism, similar to pragmatism, rejects the notion that ideas are best evaluated in terms of their ability to represent reality. This stands in contrast to scientific realism, which holds that scientific inquiry in its most accurate form produces theories and laws that exactly describe reality.

Instrumentalism holds a second broad meaning in the context of the environment. Natural resources are used instrumentally to support the foundations of economic growth and to uphold the economic ideologies that stand behind such development. Under this logic, it is the property-owning ruling class that stands to benefit most from these uses. In this sense, instrumentalism contrasts with pluralism and other forms of egalitarian approaches to distributing wealth.

In the philosophy of science, instrumentalism is the view that although theories are typically produced to explain some aspect of the world and are legitimated by their accuracy, ideas also hold value in their ability to explain and rationalize other phenomenon. An example is the discovery of the persistent, cyclical relationship among ultraviolet light, chlorofluoro carbons (CFCs), and stratospheric ozone (O3). While this finding revealed a series of important chemical reactions, its meaning held wider value in discussions by scientists on the behavior of CFCs in the stratosphere. The findings were instrumentalized to support a larger set of scientific theories concerning the persistent contribution of CFCs to ozone depletion – despite substantial skepticism over the accuracy of long-term CFC observations.

In a more political sense, instrumentalism considers theories valuable in their ability to reach the political ends they were meant to serve. Consider two opposing plans for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The preservationist will espouse theories of ecological fragility and costly impediments to development in order to prevent drilling for oil. The development agency will appeal to public sentiment citing theories of low impact drilling and U.S. oil independence. In this case, both groups articulate theories to the public about ANWR that may or may not be entirely true. Under an instrumentalism view, the validity of these claims is less important than their ability to advance the larger ideological agenda they are reaffirming. Both the preservationist and development interest groups use their theories as instruments for advancing a particular agenda and discrediting the agenda of their adversaries.

While theories about the environment are used as instruments to uphold political agendas, nature in its material sense is controlled, manipulated, and used as an instrument of economic growth. Diverting, damming, and channeling water; mining for minerals and metals; grading and displacing soil; and logging forests are all examples of converting nature into an economically productive form.

One of the most common applications of instrumentalism as a lens for viewing society-environment interactions is in the context of rapidly urbanizing areas. Cities face pressure to meet the service-oriented and infrastructural demands of fast-paced regional, national, and increasingly global economies. Over the course of their history, major metropolitan areas are literally carved out of and built into the surrounding environment in order to keep up with these demands. The exploitation of nature, as a “natural resource,” is instrumental to meeting the demands of scalar economic growth and the ideologies driving such economic policies. Often this leads state and private interests to secure property rights over valuable resources such as water and lumber. Under elite control, environmental resources become instruments for securing and consolidating material wealth among the capitalist ruling class.

Bibliography:

Jody Emel, “Resource Instrumentalism, Privatization, and Commodification,” Urban Geography (v.11/6, 1990);
David Harvey, Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Blackwell, 1996);
W.H. Newton-Smith, A Companion to the Philosophy of Science (Blackwell, 2001);
Andrew Sayer, Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach (Routledge, 1992).