Ethics

Ethics is a discipline that deals with how we value and perceive our environment. Ethics influence our decisions and actions.

Figure 2.1

Worldview

Worldview = a persons or groups beliefs about the meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the world.

Some questions in environmental ethics Should the present generation

conserve resources for future generations?
Are humans justified in driving other species to extinction?

Is is OK to destroy a forest to create jobs for people?

Is it OK for some communities to be exposed to more pollution than others?

Environmental Ethics

Moral = the distinction between right and wrong Values = the ultimate worth of actions or things What is instrumental value? What is intrinsic value?

Environmental Ethics
is concerned with the moral relationships between humans and the world around us. Do we have special duties, obligations, or responsibilities to other species or nature in general? Are our dispositions towards humans different than towards nature? How are they different? Are there moral laws objectively valid and independent of cultural context, history, situation, or environment?

Environmental Ethics

Universalists Relativists Nihilists Utilitarians

Environmental Ethics
Universalists Fundamental principles of ethics are universal, unchanging, and eternal. The rules of right and wrong are valid regardless of our interests, attitudes, desires or preferences. Revealed by God? Revealed by discovery? Plato, Kant

Environmental Ethics
Relativists Moral principles are always relative to a particular person, society, or situation. Ethical values are contextual, that is they depend on the person, the society, or the situation. There is right and wrong or at least better or worse but no principles are absolute regardless of context. Sophists

Environmental Ethics
Nihilists The world makes no sense at all! Everything is completely arbitrary, there is no meaning or purpose to life other than the instinctive struggle for survival. There is no reason to behave morally. Might is right. The is no such thing as the good life. Life is uncertain full of pain and despair. Schopenhauer

Environmental Ethics
Utilitarians An action is right that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Goodness = Happiness Happiness = Pleasure Bentham (Plato, Socrates, Aristotle) John Stuart Mill held that the greatest pleasure is to be educated and to act according to enlightened, humanitarian principles

Environmental Perspectives (World views)

Worldview = a persons or groups beliefs about the meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the world.

There are lots of them

Three ethical worldviews

Figure 2.4

Environmental Perspectives
Domination Stewardship Biocentrism Ecocentrism Ecofeminism Scientific Process Sustainability Critical Thinking

 Domination Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth Gen 1:28 Stewardship Responsibility to manage and care for a particular place. As custodians of resources, they see their proper role as working together with human and nonhuman forces to sustain life. Humility and reverence are essential in this worldview

Environmental Perspectives

Environmental Perspectives
Biocentrism Life centered, all organisms have some intrinsic values and rights. Biodiversity is the highest ethical value in nature. Individuals and populations are the basic units of biodiversity.

Environmental Perspectives
Ecocentrism Ecologically centered, because individuals are doomed to suffering and pain evolution, adaptation, and biogeochemical cycles are really more important than individuals. The whole ecosystem is more important than the individuals and populations that make up the ecosystem. Moral values for ecological process and systems

Environmental Perspectives
Ecofeminism Western civilization in opposition to nature life is interconnected maintenance of diversity restructuring human society Bounty rather than scarcity Cooperation rather than competition A network of personal relationships rather than isolated egos

 The Scientific Process at work 1. Provides a linear path to knowledge with positive and negative feedback loops. 2. Requires repeated observation of the same thing, over and over again. 3. Some times repeated observations are not possible. 4. Need to be able to measure something. (testable?) 5. Need to be able to control things. 6. Need to be able to define things. 7. Cant Prove something to be true only that it is false 8. Feedback goes on at each level in the scientific method.

Environmental Perspectives

Environmental Perspective
Sustainability Refers to whether a process can be continued indefinitely without depleting the energy or material resources on which it depends. Sustainable agriculture maintains the integrity of the soil and water resources as well as genetic diversity of the germ plasm. Sustainable development provides people with a better life without sacrificing or depleting resources or causing environmental impacts that will undercut future generations. Sustainable society sustainable yield.

Environmental Perspective
Sustainability based on ecosystem processes A recycling of elements Sunlight as a source of energy Carrying capacities are realized and maintained Biodiversity is maintained

Environmental Perspectives

Critical Thinking Elements of thought Intellectual standards

Early environmental philosophers The industrial revolution inspired reaction.

The preservation ethic

John Muir (right, with President Roosevelt at Yosemite) advocated preserving unspoiled nature, for its own sake and for human fulfillment.
Figure 2.5

The conservation ethic

Gifford Pinchot advocated using natural resources, but exploiting them wisely, for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.
Figure 2.6

The land ethic

Aldo Leopold urged people to view themselves as part of nature, and to strive to maintain the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.
Figure 2.7