Abstract

What is trash? Something becomes trash when it is thrown away, establishing a relationship between the discarded thing and other things. Trash is a "socially constructed" kind of thing; a kind whose nature is determined, not by an internal "essence," but by how it is regarded and dealt with. There is no study of trash in the philosophical literature, but there is much on the ontology of art, which is also a socially constructed kind. I use the institutional theory of art, as developed by George Dickie and Arthur Danto, as a model for a philosophy of trash. ;Many candidates for the true nature, the essence, of art have been considered and eventually rejected. It has proven impossible for philosophers to establish necessary and sufficient conditions for art, because as artistic practice, and the overall "institution" of art, evolves, the very nature of art evolves; art is a function of the social practices and institutions within which art works are embedded. So is trash. Understanding socially constructed things entails looking closely at the human values, choices and actions which are constitutive of them. Accordingly, I examine the action of throwing things away, whereby trash is made, and the situations within which this occurs. ;In this, I draw upon John Searle's recent study of the nature of social reality, where he develops a philosophical theory of social ontology. The dissertation concludes with an examination of the normative implications of understanding the nature of trash, and draws upon Lorraine Code's work in the area of epistemic responsibility. I intend the project to add philosophical depth and rigor to our thinking about trash as an environmental problem, and to show how philosophical analysis is relevant to everyday life