Ecological Literacy for Moral Virtue: Orr on [moral] education for postmodern sustainability

David Orr's postmodern philosophical investigations begin with the recognition that our modern culture is not ecologically sustainable; and therefore threatens all life on earth in the long term, even as it continues to destroy sustainable cultures in the short term. Hopeful of redirecting our civic culture or morality, as well as our technologies towards postmodern sustainability, Orr proposes an education for ecological literacy. This paper examines Orr's account of ecological literacy. Following his attempts to take us beyond modern literacy, it analyses Orr's conception of moral virtue. It concludes with some reflections on Orr's deconstruction of professional academic boundaries, including those that continue to separate ecological literacy from moral education.