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phil2306_ppt_ch15.pptWilliam F. Baxter, “People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution”
Baxter defends an anthropocentric approach.
Four goals associated with this approach:
1. The sphere of freedom criterion
2. Waste is a bad thing. (Why?)
3. Every human being is an end.
4. Incentives and opportunities to improve individual satisfaction
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William F. Baxter, “People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution”
We should strive for an optimal state of pollution.
Trade-off between environmental improvement and other things that interfere with it
Trade-offs are negotiated by reference to human satisfaction.
Must find optimal balance between environmental goods (e.g., clean air) and other goods (e.g., certain kinds of technology).
Balance is optimal when shifting the balance can only decrease overall human satisfaction.
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© Oxford University Press
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Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic”
Leopold proposes an ecocentric ethic according to which it is an action's effects on the “integrity, stability, and beauty” of the “biotic community” that ultimately make the action right or wrong.
He thinks of the land ethic as a next step in the “extension” of ethics:
Step 1: Ethics deals with the relation between individuals.
Step 2: Ethics deals with the relation between the individual and society.
Step 3: Ethics deals with the relation between the individual and his natural environment.
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© Oxford University Press
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Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic”
A conservation system “based wholly on economic motives” will assign no value to “noneconomic categories” (i.e., the organisms that cannot be “put to economic use”).
But the “economic parts” of the environment depend on these noneconomic parts.
This, in conjunction with an appropriate appreciation of nature, shows that we should not make decisions about land use that are based solely on economic considerations.
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© Oxford University Press
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Thomas E. Hill Jr., “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving the Natural Environment”
What not to ask:
Are rights or interests of plants neglected?
What is God's will on the matter?
What is the intrinsic value of a tree or forest?
What is wrong with destroying the environment?
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Thomas E. Hill Jr., “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving the Natural Environment”
A more useful question:
What sort of person would want to destroy the environment?
Hill's example of the “wealthy eccentric”
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Thomas E. Hill Jr., “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving the Natural Environment”
Answer:
Valuing nature is conducive to the possession of certain virtues, especially humility.
Two aspects of humility that Hill focuses on:
- 1. Appreciating one's place in nature
- 2. Self-acceptance
Ignorance is correlated with the lack of humility.
So those who do not value nature will tend to be ignorant, have an exaggerated sense of self-importance, and lack an important kind of self-acceptance.
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- Stephen M. Gardiner, “A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics, and the Problem of Moral Corruption”
Main idea: Climate change involves the convergence of a set of three kinds of factors:
Global
Intergenerational
Theoretical
This “perfect moral storm” makes us “extremely vulnerable to moral corruption.”
© Oxford University Press
© Oxford University Press
Peter Wenz, “Environmental Virtues: Consumerism and Human Flourishing”
Consumerism harms the environment.
Consumerism harms poor people in the Third World.
Consumerism harms industrial people.
Consumerism promotes recognized vices.
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© Oxford University Press
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