Holmes Rolston III (born November 19, 1932) is a philosopher who is University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University. He is best known for his contributions to

environmental ethics In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resourc ...

and the

relationship between science and religion The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern ...

. Among other honors, Rolston won the 2003

Templeton Prize The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest quest ...

, awarded by

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

in Buckingham Palace. He gave the

Gifford Lectures The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford. Their purpose is to "promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term – in o ...

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, 1997–1998. He also serves on the Advisory Council of

METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) METI International, known simply as METI, is a non-profit research organization that creates and transmits interstellar messages to attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations. In July 2015, the papers to form METI were filed by ...

. The

Darwinian Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that ...

model is used to define the main thematic concepts in Rolston's philosophy and, in greater depth, the general trend of his thinking.

Life

His grandfather and father Holmes Rolston, and Holmes Rolston Jr (who did not use the Jr) were

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

ministers. Rolston III was married on June 1, 1956 to Jane Irving Wilson, with whom he has a daughter and son. He holds a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Presbyterian-affiliated Davidson College (1953) and a Bachelor of Divinity degree from

Union Presbyterian Seminary Union Presbyterian Seminary is a Presbyterian seminary in Richmond, Virginia. It also has a non-residential campus in Charlotte, North Carolina and an online blended learning program. History As a result of efforts undertaken together by the S ...

(1956). He was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA) also in 1956. He received a Ph.D. from the

in 1958; his advisor was Thomas F. Torrance. He earned an M.A. in the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...

from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

in 1968, beginning his career later that year as an assistant professor of philosophy at Colorado State University and becoming a full professor in 1976. He became a University Distinguished Professor in 1992. He gave the Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, 1998-1999. He was named

laureate in 2003. He has lectured by invitation on all seven continents.

Holmes Rolston 1900-1977

Holmes Rolston (1900-1977), father of Holmes Rolston III, was the Editor-in-Chief of the Presbyterian Church Board of Christian Education, in the United States, Richmond, Virginia between 1949 and 1969, and a widely published author of curriculum materials in Christian education. He gave the Sprunt Lectures, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Series XXXI 1941-1942, published as ''The Social Message of the Apostle Paul'' (John Knox Press, 1942). He also wrote a number of books on personalities in the Bible, for example: ''Faces about the Christ'' (John Knox Press, 1959) and ''Personalities Around David'' (John Knox Press, 1968). See ''Who's Who in America'', 39th ed., 1976-1977.

Views on rights

Rolston accepts that humans have rights but has criticized the idea of

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

and extending rights to flora because there are no rights in the wild. Rolston has argued that a rights approach to sentient life is ill-suited to ecosystems and when a moral agent is faced with suffering in an ecosystem there is no duty to intervene. In 1991, Rolston stated: Rolston has also argued that "environmental ethics accepts predation as good in wild nature", Rolston says that wild

predation Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

should be respected because it has great importance for larger ecosystem and evolutionary processes.Diehm, Christian. (2012). ''Unnaturally Cruel: Rolston on Animals, Ethics, and the Factory Farm''. ''Expositions'' 6.1: 29-40. ISSN: 1747–5376. For example, predators eliminate weak and unfit individuals from populations of prey organisms contributing to the overall integrity of those species and culling of unfit organisms by predators is vital to the evolutionary process of natural selection, which Rolston believes trends towards more complex and diverse life forms. Rolston has stated that predation is an integral part of nature which "yields a flourishing of species" and has contributed to some of the most significant achievements in natural history and that without predation, life on earth would be greatly impoverished. Rolston has argued that when humans encounter wild nature they are not under any duty or obligation to alleviate any

wild animal suffering Wild animal suffering is the suffering experienced by nonhuman animals living outside of direct human control, due to harms such as disease, injury, parasitism, starvation and malnutrition, dehydration, weather conditions, natural disasters, an ...

and that since animals in the wild have no claim to a pleasant life free of pain then humans have no moral duty to provide them with one. Rolston says that this also holds true for domesticated animals because although they have been brought under the care of humans, their origins are from wild nature so the comparison class for assessing conduct towards them should not be from humans but from other animals. In Rolston's view domesticated animals like wild animals "have no right or welfare claim to have from humans a kinder treatment than in nonhuman nature".

Bibliography

Holmes Rolston III is author of eight books that have won acclaim in both academic journals and the mainstream press. They are:
''A New Environmental Ethics: The Next Millennium for Life on Earth''
(Routledge, 2012)
''Three Big Bangs: Matter-Energy, Life, Mind''
(Columbia University Press, 2011)
''Genes, Genesis and God''
(Cambridge University Press, 1999) Gifford Lectures
''Science and Religion: A Critical Survey''
(Random House 1987, McGraw Hill, Harcourt Brace; new edition,

Templeton Foundation Press The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious an ...

, 2006)
''Philosophy Gone Wild''
( Prometheus Books, 1986, 1989)
''Environmental Ethics''
(

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

, 1988)
''Conserving Natural Value''
(Columbia University Press, 1994) *''Religious Inquiry: Participation and Detachment'' (Philosophical Library, 1985) *''John Calvin Versus the Westminster Confession'' (Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1972)
"Care on Earth: Generating Informed Concern."
Pages 205-245 in

Paul Davies Paul Charles William Davies (born 22 April 1946) is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, a professor in Arizona State University and Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He is affiliated with the Institute ...

and Niels Henrik Gregersen, eds., ''Information and the Nature of Reality: From Physics to Metaphysics'' (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Quotes

References

External links

Official webpage
at Colorado State University
Profile
at Colorado State University

on ReadTheSpirit.com
Colorado State University Digital ArchivesColorado State University Streaming MediaRolston Library, Department of Philosophy, Colorado State UniversityHolmes Rolston, III
-

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes ...

Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Rolston, Holmes, Iii 1932 births Living people 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Critics of animal rights American Presbyterians Calvinist and Reformed philosophers Environmental ethicists Philosophers of science Templeton Prize laureates Union Presbyterian Seminary alumni University of Pittsburgh alumni Writers about religion and science Distinguished professors of philosophy