Download Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics
Definitions
• Moral Agents
– Those who have the freedom
and rational capacity to be
responsible for choices
– Those capable of moral
reflection and decision.
– Example: adult humans of
sound mind
• Infants and mentally infirm
adults are NOT moral agents
Definitions
• Moral Standing:
– If you have moral standing:
• Your continued existence or
welfare is valuable in itself
(intrinsic value)
• Your interests and well-being
must be weighed when deciding
what is permissible to do.
– Example: humans of all kinds
• Babies, children, adults, old
people, etc.
• Women, different races,
different cultures
Definitions
• Moral Duties
– That which is owed by
moral agents to those
with moral standing.
– Example: It is wrong to
kill our children because
we have a moral duty
toward them
Philosophical Issue
• Who or what has moral
standing, and why?
– Does the environment have
moral standing?
– Must look at criteria for
moral standing
• What moral duty do we
(moral agents) have
toward those with moral
standing?
– Different ethical positions
suggest different moral
duties.
Yosemite National Park
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Membership in the species
Homo sapiens
– Humans have a soul
– Humans are moral agents
• and are responsible for
knowing right from wrong
– Humans are intelligent
– Humans have personhood
• and self-consciousness
– Humans have language
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Sentience, the ability
to feel pain
– Therefore extend
moral standing to
animals
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Being alive
– Therefore extend
moral standing to
animals and plants:
– All living things.
Ideas on Criteria for Moral Standing
• Being part of nature
– Therefore extend moral
standing to the
• earth
• ecosystems
• rocks
• rivers
• plants animals
• the entire natural
world
Ethical Positions
• Anthropocentrism:
Human centered
morality
– Only humans have
intrinsic value and
moral standing.
– The rest of the
natural world has
instrumental value
(use to humans).
Anthropocentrism
– We can best protect
nature by looking out for
human needs.
• Ex: Ducks Unlimited
preserves wetlands
• Ex: Saving the
rainforests will provide
O2 and medicines for
humans.
– Problem: Would you blow
up the world if you were
the last human
Ethical Positions
• Sentio-centrism:
Sentient-being
centered morality
– All and only sentient beings
(animals that feel pain) have
intrinsic value and moral
standing.
– The rest of the natural world
has instrumental value.
– Both humans and sentient
animals have rights and/or
interests that must be
considered
Ethical Positions
• Biocentric Individualism:
Life-centered morality
– All and only living beings,
specifically individual organisms
(not species or ecosystems) have
intrinsic value and moral
standing.
– Humans are not superior to
other life forms nor privileged,
and must respect the inherent
worth of every organism
– Humans should minimize harm
and interference with nature:
eat vegetarian since less land
needs to be cultivated.
Ethical Positions
• Eco-centric Holism:
ecosystem centered morality
• Non-individuals (the earth as an
interconnected ecosystem,
species, natural processes) have
moral standing or intrinsic value
and are deserving of respect.
• Individuals must be concerned
about the whole community of
life/nature,
• Humans should strive to
preserve ecological balance and
stability.
Patriarchal Dualisms
• Greek, Roman, Hebrew:
– Humans are separate from
• and superior to nature
– Human, mind, rationality, and man
• are linked and superior
– Nature, body, feelings, and woman
• are linked, and inferior
– Justifies domination by men over
• Nature
• Women
Aristotle
Ecofeminism
• Rejects Patriarchal Dualisms
– The domination of nature by men is
wrong
• is similar to and related to the
domination of women by men.
– Must break the pattern of "power
over" relationships
• will benefit both women and the
natural world.
Acid attack victims
Feminism
Deep Ecology
• Humans are deeply
connected with nature.
• If humans identify with
nature, then taking care
of the natural world will
become part of taking
care of one's self.
Sitting Bull, 1877
• “Behold, my brothers, the
spring has come; the earth has
received the embraces of the
sun and we shall soon see the
results of that love!
• Every seed has awakened and
so has all animal life.
• It is through this mysterious
power that we too have our
being and we therefore yield to
our neighbors, even our animal
neighbors, the same right as
ourselves, to inhabit this land…
Sitting Bull, 1877
• “Yet hear me, my people,
we have now to deal with
another race - small and
feeble when our fathers first
met them, but now great and
overbearing.
• Strangely enough they have
a mind to till the soil and the
love of possessions is a
disease with them . . ..
Sitting Bull, 1877
• “They claim this mother of
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ours, the earth, for their own,
and fence their neighbors away;
they deface her with their
buildings and their refuse.
They threaten to take [the land]
away from us.
My brothers, shall we submit, or
shall we say to them:
"First kill me before you take
possession of my Fatherland."
Bioregionalism
• Lead a simple life with
local production of food
and other products by
people that you know
– Increases environmental
awareness and caring
– decreases exploitation of
the environment and
people.