ÿþ<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 97/98"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.5 (Macintosh; U; PPC) [Netscape]"> <title>Lecture 5 Outline: Environmental Ethics</title> </head> <body> &nbsp; <table CELLPADDING=5 COLS=1 WIDTH="50%" > <tr> <td> <center> <h3> Environmental Philosophy and Ethics</h3></center> <center> <h4> 5. Environmental Ethics</h4></center> <h4> 2. Ethics and Morals</h4> <ul> <li> Ethics: Latin, ethicus; ethos. Character, customs</li> <li> First principles governing right and wrong.</li> <li> Morals: Latin, moralis; pl. mores. Manners, morals.</li> <li> Personal value system; personal actions.</li> <li> Ethical questions:</li> <li> What is good?</li> <li> What is right?</li> <li> How ought we to act?</li> <li> Environmental ethics: How ought we to act toward the environment? What is right? Good?</li> </ul> <h4> 3. Plato</h4> <ul> <li> 428-348 B.C.E.</li> <li> Absolute ethics; rule- governed ethics; rational understanding.</li> <li> The Good: the ideal or pure form of goodness.</li> <li> The Good Life; the Good State; the Good Society.</li> <li> Rules on how to live.</li> <li> E.g. Passage of "good" environmental laws and living accordingly.</li> </ul> <h4> 4. Aristotle</h4> <ul> <li> 384-322 B.C.E.</li> <li> Nichomachean Ethics.</li> <li> Human nature.</li> <li> Humans are part of the natural world.</li> <li> Material, formal, efficient, final causes.</li> <li> Telos: goal, end.</li> <li> Teleological ethics: goal-oriented ethics.</li> </ul> <h4> 5. Aristotle's Ethics</h4> <ul> <li> "Virtue is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean [between two extremes] . . . this being determined by a rational principle."</li> <li> "Moral virtue is a mean . . . between two vices, the one involving excess, the other deficiency."</li> <li> E.g. The natural world as it exists is good. Maintain its balances. Use moderation in the consumption of the world's resources.</li> </ul> <h4> 6. Thomas Aquinas</h4> <ul> <li> 1224-1274 A.D.</li> <li> Good = God.</li> <li> Theological ethics.</li> <li> Divine order in nature.</li> <li> Aristotelianism integrated with Christianity.</li> <li> Natural law ethics.</li> <li> Laws of nature can be discovered by reason.</li> <li> Laws of nature prescribe human behavior.</li> </ul> <h4> 7. Aquinas's Ethics</h4> <ul> <li> Every being has a purpose within the divine order and a "natural" inclination to actualize that purpose.&nbsp;</li> <li> Humans are between God and nature. They seek salvation in God; nature drags down spirit.</li> <li> Humans have natural inclinations to preserve their own lives, to procreate their own kind, to care for their fellow humans; they have needs for justice and order.</li> <li> E.g. Care for other humans and their communities; stewardship over other creatures.</li> </ul> <h4> 8. Egocentric Ethics: Self</h4> <dir><u>Self-Interest:</u> <li> Thomas Hobbes</li> <li> John Locke</li> <li> Adam Smith</li> <li> Garrett Hardin</li> <p><u>Religious:</u> <li> Judeo-Christian Ethic</li> <li> Arminian "Heresy"</li> </dir> <h4> 9. Egocentric Ethics</h4> <dir> <li> Maximization of Individual Self-Interest: What is Good for the Individual is Good for Society as a Whole</li> <li> Mutual Coercion Mutually Agreed Upon</li> </dir> <h4> 10. Immanuel Kant - 1724-1804</h4> <ul> <li> Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785).</li> <li> Deontological ethics: ethics based on duty (Greek, deon).</li> <li> The moral law is a priori imprinted on human consciousness.</li> <li> Categorical imperative: One's actions should be governed by the same principles one would want to govern all people's actions.</li> </ul> <h4> 11. Kant's Ethics</h4> <ul> <li> "There is but one categorical imperative, namely this: Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law."</li> <li> The imperative of duty: "Act as if the maxim of thy action were to become by thy will a Universal Law of Nature."</li> <li> E.g. Rational analysis of world hunger leads universal actions to reduce human suffering. It is our duty to supply food to the starving.</li> </ul> <h4> 12. Jeremy Bentham</h4> <ul> <li> 1748-1832</li> <li> The Principles of Morals and Legislation (1781)</li> <li> Utilitarian ethics</li> <li> Consequentialist ethics</li> <li> Look at the consequences of an action.</li> <li> Greatest good for the greatest number.</li> </ul> <h4> 13. Bentham: The Principle of Utility</h4> <ul> <li> "By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness . . . or to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness. . . ."</li> <li> Pertains to the happiness of the community and the happiness of the individual.</li> <li> Government should "augment the happiness of the community. . . ."</li> </ul> <h4> 14. John Stuart Mill</h4> <ul> <li> 1806-1873</li> <li> Utilitarianism (1863)</li> <li> "Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness."</li> <li> "By 'happiness' is intended pleasure and the absence of pain."</li> </ul> <h4> 15. Homocentric Ethics: Society</h4> <dir><u>Utilitarian:</u> <li> J.S. Mill</li> <li> Jeremy Bentham</li> <li> Gifford Pinchot</li> <li> Peter Singer</li> <li> Barry Commoner</li> <li> Murray Bookchin</li> <p><u>Religious:</u> <li> John Ray</li> <li> William Derham</li> <li> Ren&eacute; Dubos</li> <li> Robin Attfield</li> </dir> <h4> 16. Homocentric Ethics</h4> <dir> <li> Greatest Good of the Greatest Number for the Longest Time</li> <li> Social Justice</li> <li> Duty to the Human Community</li> </dir> <h4> 17. Aldo Leopold</h4> <ul> <li> 1887-1948.</li> <li> A Sand County Almanac (1949)</li> <li> "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, beauty, and stability of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."</li> </ul> <h4> 18. Leopold and Pine Tree</h4> <ul> <li> "The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land."</li> <li> "A land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conquerer of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it."</li> </ul> <h4> 19. Ecocentric Ethics: Cosmos</h4> <ul><u>Eco-Scientific:</u> <li> Aldo Leopold</li> <li> Rachel Carson</li> <li> Deep Ecologists</li> <li> Restoration Ecologists</li> <li> Biological Control</li> <li> Sustainable Agriculture</li> <p><u>Eco-Religious:</u> <li> American Indian</li> <li> Buddhism</li> <li> Spiritual Feminists</li> <li> Spiritual Greens</li> <li> Process Philosophers</li> </ul> <h4> 20. Ecocentric Ethics</h4> <dir> <li> Rational, Scientific Belief-System Based on Laws of Ecology</li> <li> Unity, Stability, Diversity, Harmony of Ecosystem</li> <li> Balance of Nature</li> </dir> <h4> 21. Feminist Ethics</h4> <ul> <li> Susan Sherwin. "A Feminist Approach to Ethics." (1984)</li> <li> Nel Noddings. Caring: a Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (1984)</li> <li> Marti Kheel. "The Liberation of Nature: A Circular Affair." (1985)</li> <li> Karen Warren. "Toward an Ecofeminist Ethic." (1988)</li> </ul> <h4> 22. Partnership Ethics: People and Nature</h4> <ul> <li> The Greatest Good for the Human and Nonhuman Communities is in their Mutual Living Interdependence</li> </ul> <h4> 23. Partnership Ethics</h4> <ul> <li> Equity between the human and nonhuman communities.</li> <li> Moral consideration for both humans and other species.</li> <li> Respect for cultural diversity and biodiversity.</li> <li> Inclusion of women, minorities, and nonhuman nature in the code of ethical accountability.</li> <li> Ecologically sound management is consistent with the continued health of both the human and nonhuman communities.</li> </ul> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>