Virtue Ethics Flashcards
Aristotle’s golden mean
Virtues are a middle ground between extremes, being virtuous is the middle ground between excess and deficiency
Describe virtue ethics
Rather than focus on actions –> consequences, focus on developing a virtuous character
Strengths & weaknesses of virtue ethics
strengths: strong motivation and justification
weaknesses: too wishy washy - what does it mean to be virtuous? Also, do you have to be virtuous to be happy?
Euthyphro problem: two ways of relating God’s command with ethics
- actions are morally right or good because God commands them
- God commands actions because they are morally good or right
Precautionary principle
Taking precautionary actions to prevent serious/irreversible threats
Pros and cons of the precautionary principle
Pro: it’s common sense that we should alleviate serious threats even if we are not positive they will occur
Con: may block new technologies/innovations and could potentially be paralyzing
Three ambiguities of the precautionary principle:
- What sorts of actions should be taken?
- What sorts of threats count as serious or irreversible?
- How much evidence is needed before taking action?
Pros and cons to appealing to what is “natural” as a guide to environmental action
Pros:
- Intuitive
- Changing things from past condition tends to be problematic
- Straight forward guideline (let nature take its course)
Cons
- Ethical actions can resist the natural order, like vaccines
- The natural order can be cruel
- “Nature” is difficult to define
I = PAT
Impact = Population * Affluence (comsumption/person) * T (impact/consumption)
Five approaches to dealing with population concerns
- Cornucopian approach: don’t worry about population, the more people you have the more brains and creativity to solve problems
- Information/education about population impacts
- Indirect motivations - societies lessen pop growth when we fix other sectors of society
- More aggressive - tax policies and financial incentives
- Really aggressive - forced sterilizations and abortions
Three views of how hope relates to conservation
1: Kingsolver: Hope is powerful and motivating
2: Nelson: Hope is sugary cereal, ephemeral
3: Meine: We should focus on creating hope rather than searching for it
Ecofeminism
The domination of nature and women are intertwined historically, through common impacts, and through dualistic hierarchies
Ecofeminism strengths and weaknesses
strengths:
- Insightful analogy for assessing domination as a root of environmental problems
- Women may be particularly good at responding to environmental harm
Weaknesses:
- Not intersectional enough
- Overgeneralizes women
- Conforms to gender binary
Social ecology
Identifying the interconnections of social and ecological problems
Social ecology strengths and weaknesses
Strengths:
- Many ecological problems have underlying social problems, such as oil industry in Nigeria
Weaknesses:
- May distract from urgent environmental problems
- May overestimate how much social and ecological problems are actually intertwined
Examples of social ecology
- Society that glorifies competition, capitalism, and succeeding over others also tends to glorify harsh anthropocentrism
- Problems like poverty, lack of women’s rights are associated with population growth and environmental impact
- Indigenous people getting kicked off lands resulting in degradation of land
- Money goes towards war and defense, have less for other purposes and war is horrible for the environment
Environmental justice
movement focused on the worry that environmental benefits and burdens are distributed unequally, and those who face the greatest burdens are already disadvantaged
Environmental justice examples
- Landfills/factories in poorer/black communities
- Disproportionate effect of climate change
- Pipelines through indigenous lands
- Uranium mining in Navajo nation
- Love Canal
White’s two-part argument for Western Christianity’s historically negative impact on the environment
- Our environmental problems are caused largely by science and technology geared toward dominating nature
- This aggressive dominance of science and technology were deeply influenced by western Christianity, which was deeply anthropocentric (humans made in the image of God, everything else is God’s creation for humans)
Challenges to White’s two-part argument about Christianity
- Other sources of our problems such as consumption, militarism, capitalism, power struggles
- How accurate is the western Christianity –> science and technology pipeline?
Three ways of arguing for environmental concern from a monotheistic standpoint
- Argue that God regards the environment as having intrinsic value
- Argue that we have a responsibility to God to protect the environment (his creation)
- Harming people and harming the environment are intertwined, so if religions are concerned about the poor they should be concerned about the environment too
Kaplan’s worry about monotheistic religions
Tend to change too slowly, often have inhibited social movements for change like civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, etc.
John Perry’s two criteria for what is worthy of worship
- The entity of worship should be responsible for our existence and/or well-being
- Worshipping the entity should benefit us in some way
Robin Kimmerer’s Thanksgiving Address
An example of regarding the natural world as sacred and in a worshipful fashion. Focuses on gratitude as a way to acknowledge/worship the Earth and all it gifts us.
Argument for conservation based on beauty
Aesthetic claim: The world is beautiful
Ethical claim: What is beautiful must remain
Conclusion: Therefore, this world must remain
Pros and cons of the argument for conservation based on beauty
Pros:
- Mixes together elements of anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism
- Related to sense of place which inspires motivation
Fueled by human attitudes of biophilia
Cons:
- Some people find harmful things as having aesthetic value and don’t value important things
- Beauty can be “in the eye of the beholder”
- Beauty can be wimpy or elitist
Vucetich’s two roles environmental science can play in society, and his preference
- Providing guidance for management of natural resources
- Creation of awe and wonder
Vucetich favors the creation of awe and wonder
Sense of place
People develop significant connections with particular places, which is valuable because they can be motivated to prevent harm to these places they care about
Two components of sense of place
- Place meaning: places develop symbolic meanings for people
- Place attachment: because of these meanings, people develop deep affection and commitment to a place
Enlightened anthropocentrism
Basic idea that anthropocentrists don’t just have to appeal to short-term immediate interests or desires; can appeal to other things that are meaningful to us over the long term
