Environmental ethics Flashcards
Anthropocentrism
I. Anthropocentrism and the ecological crisis
A. Human needs at center of moral doctrines and theories → need to provide basic needs, strong infrastructures, strengthen agriculture
1. Anthropocentrism was viewed as a good thing and nature was viewed as a provider of goods that would satisfy basic human needs
B. Lynn White Jr. → The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis: article stating that europe has a cult of technology and science that occurred very early in european thought and was concentrated by the Industrial Revolution, but that we need to explore Christianity to understand why our view of the world is so human centered
1. Christianity explains antrhopocentrism
2. Animism - no distinction between humanity and the environment
a) Replacement of animism with human figures and saints is one of the most important revolutions in Western theology → missionaries brought very human centered visions of religion to other societies across the world
3. Christianity: the world was created by God for humans to utilize for their own benefit
4. One of the first pieces on anthropocentrism as a moral doctrine and linked Christianity to anthropocentrism
C. Anthropocentrism: the earth should be conserved becuase of its value for humans
D. Max Weber: religious roots of capitalism and industrialization
1. Our exploitation of nature was based in religion → Protestant ethics: work and production is valued by God and is the basis of your relationship with God
a) Exploitation of nature is what produces → gets you closer to God
E. 1970s
1. Routley: Is there a need for a new environemtanl ethics”
2. Human societies are built on the exploitation of nature → we need to move away from that and come up with a new understanding of and relationship with the environment from a non-anthropocentric perspective
I. Anthropocentrism
A. There is no problem with anthropocentrism within environmental ethics - John Passmore
1. Human beings are more valuable than animals but that superiority comes with responsibility, we must take care of the land and animals
B. Bryan Norton distinguishes between weak and strong anthropocentrism:
1. Strong: nature is only aimed at satisfying human needs
2. Weak:
3. We need to identify in our societies what our preferences are for the conservation of nature
4. We all grew up with a certain experience of nature and the personal connection we established with nature is something we can use from an ethical standpoint → we need to rely on our experience with nature and our preferences for how we want to conserve/preserve it
a) Environmental pragmatist
Other environmental ethics
II. Biocentric environmental ethics
A. Critique of anthropocentrism: strong critique of capitalism and liberalism
1. Liberalism: human interests are supreme and can’t be challenged
B. Other ideologies:
1. Issue with Marxism: doesn’t change our relationship with nature, still focused on production as way of creating what we all need
2. Canticle of the Sun - St. Thomas of Assisi → most biocentric aspect of Christianity
3. Janism - core has nature and the environment
Biocentrism
C. Biocentrism: life is at the center of our moral framework and we should value life over everything else
1. Plants, animals, nonhuman life
2. Prioritize life over economic growth and production → protect life even if it harms economic growth
3. Biocentrism stresses the intrinsic value of life and life as a guiding principle for what we should focus on protecting
Egalitarian Biocentrism: Paul W. Taylor & E. Holmes Rostom II
- Taylor was very influenced by Janism and Nietzche → primacy of life, creation of life, and power of life
- System of beliefs: humans are part of the same community of life as other plants and animals, within that community, all living beings are interdependent on each other and all have the same will to live
a) All forms of life have the right to grow/live and become what they’re meant to become → prerequisite for giving rights to all living things
b) We need to treat each other well because if we destroy other forms of life it will endanger the entire ecosystem → it’s in our interest to protect all forms of life - Moral attitude towards the world: we should move away from the human condition and try to understand the world from the perspective of the community of life that we form with other beings
a) Don’t think about hte world as humans, just as members of that community - There is a set of rules we need to follow: we should not harm another living being, we should not limit their freedom to grow, we should not break the trust and relationship we have with animals, we need to give justice to living beings
a) If we harm a living being we should compensate for or fix what we did.
b) Paul Taylor placed the same importance on all forms of life - Nietzche → vitaliste
E. Holmes Rostom III - another proponent of egalitarian biocentrism
1. Commentary on Darwin and theory of evolution
2. His biocentrism comes from his reading of Darwin → sees story of life as incredibly complex, current planetary equilibrium is the result of millions of years of evolution
a) Life should be preserved because of its complex history and incredibly fragile equilibrium
b) We share a common status and common history and common future with other forms of life → we’re all on the same boat
c) All living beings should be equal and all should have access to the resources they need to live and thrive
3. Same perspective as Taylor but more based on Darwinism and the theory of evolution → science is the main backing for his ethics
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Biocentric consequentialism
F. Biocentric consequentialism: all forms of life have needs and interested, we shouldn’t distinguish between forms of life as we are all part of the same community, we should not give the same moral standing to all living beings though
1. Moral consideration instead of moral standing: we give the minimum form of respect to all living beings, but we do need to be able to make choices
2. They try to show that we could differentiate between forms of life based on the complexity of the form of life
a) Humans have supreme interests → animals are given more moral consideration than plants
3. How do you evaluate complexity?
a) The ability to suffer → you need to justify it
G. Difference of intensity → minimal form of respect instead of absolute form of respect
1. Your moral inclination is to protect and respect them but there are situations where you can’t and so consequentialism helps you make that choice
Ecocentric environmental ethics
III. Ecocentric environmental ethics: understands that the criterion of life might be to limited to think about our moral obligations towards our environment
A. Aldo Leopold and the land ethic: talks about his experiences as a conservationist in the US Forest Service in A Sand County Almanac
1. Cut trees and took care of natural areas in the Forest Service but ended up becoming very critical of these → viewed as unjust intervention on nature and other beings
2. land ethic: more ecosystemic ethic, based on ecosystems, think about our moral obligations through the point of view of the ecosystems
a) “You have to think like a mountain”
b) We have moral obligations to the biotic community, which gathers all humans and nonhumans regardless of the criteria of being alive or not
B. J. Baird Callicott: we should give an intrinsic value to the biotic community, not just to life
1. You should not harm ecosystems and the biotic community at all
a) You should not touch the integrity, beauty, or stability of the ecosystem → leave it untouched, don’t disturb its equilibrium
C. Deep ecology of “ecosophy” → Arme Naess
1. Distinguishes between deep ecology and shallow ecology
a) Shallow ecology focuses on low impact measures → fighting against scarcity of resources and pollution → only benefits developed countries and aligns with a very Western understanding of nature AND doesn’t do much for solving the ecological crisis
b) Deep ecology doesn’t place humans at the center of the environment → think about the world as a totality, as a unit → our moral perspectives should come from the ecosystems and from the world → more universal perspective on ethics
(1) We are all entangled in a web → every action one unit commits has an impact on the others. Since we have this interconnection between all beings, we should think about the relationship of the beings from the perspective of the web
(2) Most constraints on what you can and cannot do in environmental ethics
(3) Calls for humility and moderation
Ethics of virtue
C. Ethics of virtue/Virtue ethics:
1. Ronald Sandler and Wensveen
a) Ethics that apply to nature → good and bad virtues associated with nature
(1) Don’t be greedy, be frugal/prudent, and don’t be a part of overproduction
(2) Bad virtues: those that are not compatible with the protection of nature
