People and The Environemtent Essay
jameslumsey
EnvEthics.pptPeople and the Environment
Environmental Ethics
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Ethical Philosophy
- A branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct
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Fall 2020
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Meta-Ethics
- Branch of philosophical ethics asking how we understand, know about, and what we mean when we talk about what is right and what is wrong
- How do we and can we talk about ethics
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Normative Ethics
- The study of ethical action
- The branch of ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking
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Fall 2020
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Some Normative Theories
- Hedonism—the principal ethic is maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain
- Utilitarianism—an ethical theory that argues the proper course of action is one that maximizes a positive effect, such as "happiness", "welfare", or the ability to live according to personal preferences
- Deontology—an approach to ethics that determines goodness or rightness from examining acts, or the rules and duties that the person doing the act strove to fulfill
- Kantianism—a deontological theory that posits (a) that to act in the morally right way, people must act from duty and (b) it was not the consequences of actions that make them right or wrong but the motives of the person who carries out the action
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Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Environmental Ethics
- A special branch of ethical philosophy devoted to understanding the relationship of humans to the environment
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
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Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
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Criticisms of Early Ethical Theories
- Anthropocentrism—ethical theories that concern themselves only with the interests and activities of humans
- The problem with anthropocentrism—Richard Routley’s ‘last person’ case
- Imagine that some catastrophe has killed every other human being on earth such that there is only one person left alive. If this person were dying, and if with his or her last dying breath it would be possible to push a button that would destroy the rest of life on earth (plants, animals, ecosystems, etc.), would there be anything morally wrong about doing so? Routley’s worry is that anthropocentric theories cannot explain why it would be morally wrong to push the button under these circumstances.
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Intrinsic Value Theory
- An adequate environmental ethic must ascribe intrinsic value to at least some part of the natural world
- Criticism—view that says that the value of a plant depends on whether it serves the interests of some divine entity, or the interests of the ecosystem, or the interests of all sentient beings, will count as nonanthropocentric but not in virtue of attributing intrinsic value to the plant
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Individualism
- Individual persons, animals, plants, etc. are valuable in their own right, while the value of the larger wholes that these individuals comprise – species, ecosystems, the biosphere, etc. – is merely derivative of the value of the individual constituents
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Holism
- Considers wholes to be the primary bearers of value and the value of individuals to depend on the contribution that those individuals make to the good of the wholes
- Most common type of holism in environmental ethics is ecocentrism the view that ecosystems matter in their own right, and individuals have value in virtue of the contribution they make to ecosystemic functioning
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Holism
- Considers wholes to be the primary bearers of value and the value of individuals to depend on the contribution that those individuals make to the good of the wholes
- Most common type of holism in environmental ethics is ecocentrism the view that ecosystems matter in their own right, and individuals have value in virtue of the contribution they make to ecosystemic functioning
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Argument for Holism
- Holists argue that egalitarianism about the value of individual organisms is ecologically wrong-headed; some individuals simply have more ecological value than others, and an adequate environmental ethic needs to take account of this difference
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Arguments for Individualism
- Holists unjustifiably disregard the worth of individuals by considering their worth to be derivative of their ecological contributions
- Wholes such as ecosystems and species do not have a good of their own, and thus their value must be derivative of the value of individual organisms, which do have a good of their own
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Some theorists began to consider animal rights a distinct field from environmental ethics and commitment to holism to be a defining feature of environmental ethics
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Environmental Pragmatists
- Argued for a reorientation of environmental ethics away from ‘the intramural debates of environmental philosophers’ and toward philosophical pursuits more likely to have a practical impact on environmental policy
- Leads to search for some combination of ethical theories/principles that lead to better policy
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Weak or Broad Anthropocentrism
- Environmental ethics should accept anthropocentrism and seek out anthropocentric justifications for environmental preservation
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Fall 2020
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The Convergence Hypothesis
- The view that anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism will recommend the same environmental policies
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
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Intergenerational Justice
- What obligations, if any, do we have to future generations of people?
- How to allocate natural resources, control pollution, etc?
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Environmental Justice Movement
- What is the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens?
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Deep Ecology
(Arne Naess)
- Ethically—biospherical egalitarianism
- View that all living things have equal right to flourish
- Requires humans to rethink our economic activity, political institutions, and acceptance of human population growth
- Metaphysically—revised understanding of the self
- Self seen as relational rather than discrete and bounded
- Including aspects of natural world rather than distinct from it
- Environmental ethics is a project of self-realization
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
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Ecofeminism
- Points out parallels between systems of domination affecting women and those affecting nature
- Both women and the natural world have been portrayed as passive, irrational, and in need of control by civilizing forces, and these understandings have helped to justify their subordination
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Ecofeminism
- In many cases, same systems oppress women & natural world
- Cultural assumptions privilege certain modes of interaction over others—rational over non-rational modes of engagement
- Ethical systems take seriously certain forms of justification and not others—appeals to abstract conceptions of beings and their rights rather than to the concrete and emotionally complex relationships in which situated beings find themselves
- Human cultural self-understandings consider some activities to be crowning cultural achievements—agriculture, industrialization—while others—gathering food, raising children—are ordinary background activity
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In each case, ecofeminists argue, it is no coincidence that the privileged dispositions or activities are typically associated with men, and the others are typically associated with women and the natural world. If it is the same logic of domination that serves to justify both the oppression of women and the exploitation of the natural world, ecofeminists argue, then any adequate environmental ethic will have to address these root causes, which must involve challenging the ideology that serves to justify these forms of oppression.
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
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Deep Ecologists and Ecofeminists Both
- Criticize Western cultural common assumptions about distinction between what is natural and what is artificial or cultural
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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What Constitutes ‘Naturalness’?
- Are categories of natural and artificial/cultural social constructions?
- Proponents argue our views about what counts as ‘natural’ and why natural things are good are highly culturally specific
- Understandings of concepts like ‘wilderness’ as cultural values have changed
- Opponents argue it is hubris for humans to think our own cultural understandings determine what the natural world is and how it operates
- We needn’t think natural world only exists through our own interpretation
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Naturalness Debate
- Not conclusive—most theorists appear to agree that while our cultural values and assumptions affect how we characterize the natural world, it remains true that at least some things within this category (animals, plants, ecosystems, etc.) are what they are and do what they do independently of our cultural understandings of them
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
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Recently, Merging of Economics Into Environmental Ethics
- Incorporating economics and valuation into environmental ethics
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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This Presentation
- Summarizes McShane 2009
- Largely using McShane's own language
- Read the paper for more details
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
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Discussion—What Do You Think About Environmental Ethics?
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Discussion #1
- What do you think should drive our ethical decisions concerning the environment?
- Do you fit into one of the ethical theories we outlined? If so, which one?
- How does your personal ethical theory fit in with others at your table? Can you see differences at your table affecting your policy approaches?
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Fall 2020
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Discussion #2
- Do you think environmental ethics should be based on
- Anthropocentrism?
- Biocentrism? (animal rights)
- Ecocentrism?
- If a combination, how do you negotiate conflicts of rights?
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Fall 2020
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Discussion #3
- Does your answer to the last question (anthropocentrism vs biocentrism vs ecocentrism) affect your understanding of the definition of “Wilderness”?
- Will this discussion of environmental ethics and “centrisms” affect how you conceive of wilderness management?
- We will return to this question one more time at end of semester
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Fall 2020
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Bonus Round! Discussion #4
- What about eco-femnism?
- Does it matter if our conceptions of human-engineered landscape/economy and the natural landscape are gendered?
- That is, we view the first as having masculine characteristics and the second as feminine and value these differently?
- Is it the gender assigning that is harmful, or the values we as a culture place on gender roles?
- If we implicitly value one gender role over another, what happens to the environment if we project gender onto the environment?
- Discuss please!
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Fall 2020
Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
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Artim—Peeps & Env—Ethics of the Environment
