The Good Hunter: Toward a Philosophy of Modern Hunting

Hunting in the U.S. is a leisure activity with a strong following of 16 million active participants and a 120-year tradition as a socially-sanctioned practice, characterized by a strong culture, economy, and identity of ‘the American hunter’ maintained by a network of state, federal, and private institutions. These institutions aim to uphold the ‘opportunity to hunt’ and manage the resources and conditions necessary in its support – mostly wild animals populations and their habitats, who are held in trust by all Americans equally and in perpetuity. Given the nature of modern hunting as a violent, risky, dangerous, bloody, voluntary, intentional, and facilitated engagement between the hunter and the hunted that is separate from ordinary life, and in the context of a cultural practice and public trust obligations, this makes the social practice subject to both public approval and moral appraisal. At issue is the fact that modern hunting is increasingly being appropriated to serve various external societal goals such as wildlife management and conservation – neither of which are undesirable goals, but miss the mark of hunting as it can be, as a practice of excellence and virtue done for its own sake. In other words, hunting is increasingly treated as a means to an end, often with the efficiency and effectiveness of the kill itself as its primary measure. Instead, I offer an alternative articulation of hunting as a social practice within the context of a game of skills with telos, excellence, virtue, and tradition at its core. This stands in contrast to the pervasive trend of modern economic and liberal individualism, and now increasingly tribalism, as the prevailing moral doctrine consuming and subjugating this practice in its throws. Drawing from both the ancient virtue philosophy of Aristotle and contemporary perspectives on Aristotelian thinking offered by MacIntyre, I will argue that hunting – as an activity that is rich and enlivened by its history, tradition, practice, narrative, excellence, and community – has inherent purpose and aim, and is desirable for its own sake. In so doing, I hope to offer a vision of what hunting can be in terms of the good life, and a novel and logically compelling ethic for the protection of wild places and wild animals that is in close alignment with wildness in the American imagination and identity.