Vogel, Steven. “On Alienation From The Built Environment.” Ethical Theory & Moral Practice

17.1 (2014): 87. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

In the article, On Alienation from the Built Environment, the author takes time to describe the actual meaning of the work environment and how it is not often used in the context it was meant for. Steven Vogel considers himself an environmental philosopher. Vogel claims, “…the built world appears in most environmental discussions not as the environment but as a threat to the environment (88)”. Vogel also suggests that we are alienated from the built environment itself which in fact makes us alienated from the environment itself. The environment in which most people live in are socially constructed places. Environmental problems are in fact social problems. Because we do not recognize the origin of things and the role of nature we therefore fail to recognize the human nature, socially surrounding up. The tragedy in what Vogel calls alienation can be overcome by making collective decisions as a whole to improve the true environment, instead of a series of individual motives.