Virtue Ethics

Question 1

Aristotle’s golden mean

Answer 1

Virtues are a middle ground between extremes, being virtuous is the middle ground between excess and deficiency

Question 2

Describe virtue ethics

Answer 2

Rather than focus on actions –> consequences, focus on developing a virtuous character

Question 3

Strengths & weaknesses of virtue ethics

Answer 3

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?

Question 4

Euthyphro problem: two ways of relating God’s command with ethics

Answer 4

1. actions are morally right or good because God commands them
2. God commands actions because they are morally good or right

Question 5

Precautionary principle

Answer 5

Taking precautionary actions to prevent serious/irreversible threats

Question 6

Pros and cons of the precautionary principle

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Three ambiguities of the precautionary principle:

Answer 7

1. What sorts of actions should be taken?
2. What sorts of threats count as serious or irreversible?
3. How much evidence is needed before taking action?

Question 8

Pros and cons to appealing to what is “natural” as a guide to environmental action

Answer 8

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

Question 9

I = PAT

Answer 9

Impact = Population * Affluence (comsumption/person) * T (impact/consumption)

Question 10

Five approaches to dealing with population concerns

Answer 10

1. Cornucopian approach: don’t worry about population, the more people you have the more brains and creativity to solve problems
2. Information/education about population impacts
3. Indirect motivations - societies lessen pop growth when we fix other sectors of society
4. More aggressive - tax policies and financial incentives
5. Really aggressive - forced sterilizations and abortions

Question 11

Three views of how hope relates to conservation

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Ecofeminism

Answer 12

The domination of nature and women are intertwined historically, through common impacts, and through dualistic hierarchies

Question 13

Ecofeminism strengths and weaknesses

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Social ecology

Answer 14

Identifying the interconnections of social and ecological problems

Question 15

Social ecology strengths and weaknesses

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Examples of social ecology

Answer 16

1. Society that glorifies competition, capitalism, and succeeding over others also tends to glorify harsh anthropocentrism
2. Problems like poverty, lack of women’s rights are associated with population growth and environmental impact
3. Indigenous people getting kicked off lands resulting in degradation of land
4. Money goes towards war and defense, have less for other purposes and war is horrible for the environment

Question 17

Environmental justice

Answer 17

movement focused on the worry that environmental benefits and burdens are distributed unequally, and those who face the greatest burdens are already disadvantaged

Question 18

Environmental justice examples

Answer 18

1. Landfills/factories in poorer/black communities
2. Disproportionate effect of climate change
3. Pipelines through indigenous lands
4. Uranium mining in Navajo nation
5. Love Canal

Question 19

White’s two-part argument for Western Christianity’s historically negative impact on the environment

Answer 19

1. Our environmental problems are caused largely by science and technology geared toward dominating nature
2. 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)

Question 20

Challenges to White’s two-part argument about Christianity

Answer 20

1. Other sources of our problems such as consumption, militarism, capitalism, power struggles
2. How accurate is the western Christianity –> science and technology pipeline?

Question 21

Three ways of arguing for environmental concern from a monotheistic standpoint

Answer 21

1. Argue that God regards the environment as having intrinsic value
2. Argue that we have a responsibility to God to protect the environment (his creation)
3. Harming people and harming the environment are intertwined, so if religions are concerned about the poor they should be concerned about the environment too

Question 22

Kaplan’s worry about monotheistic religions

Answer 22

Tend to change too slowly, often have inhibited social movements for change like civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, etc.

Question 23

John Perry’s two criteria for what is worthy of worship

Answer 23

1. The entity of worship should be responsible for our existence and/or well-being
2. Worshipping the entity should benefit us in some way

Question 24

Robin Kimmerer’s Thanksgiving Address

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Argument for conservation based on beauty

Answer 25

Aesthetic claim: The world is beautiful
Ethical claim: What is beautiful must remain
Conclusion: Therefore, this world must remain

Question 26

Pros and cons of the argument for conservation based on beauty

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Vucetich’s two roles environmental science can play in society, and his preference

Answer 27

1. Providing guidance for management of natural resources
2. Creation of awe and wonder

Vucetich favors the creation of awe and wonder

Question 28

Sense of place

Answer 28

People develop significant connections with particular places, which is valuable because they can be motivated to prevent harm to these places they care about

Question 29

Two components of sense of place

Answer 29

1. Place meaning: places develop symbolic meanings for people
2. Place attachment: because of these meanings, people develop deep affection and commitment to a place

Question 30

Enlightened anthropocentrism

Answer 30

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