Environmental Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Environmental Ethics 2

Richard Sylvan

'deep green theory' respect, not reverence to the environment - Last man thought experiment

strong sustainability

A conception of sustainability on which it requires ensuring that future generations have access to the same resources as current generations.

Ecofeminism

A family of views that identify and challenge myopic, gendered, and patriarchal features of Western philosophical thought regarding nonhuman nature and animals, and emphasizing the connections between the ways in which women and nonhuman nature are conceptualized, characterized, (mis)valued, and (mal)treated.

Distributive Justice

A justified allocation of goods and burdens within and between societies.

Conservationist

A person who believes the protection of natural areas and resources should principally be for the benefit of the people.

triple bottom line

A phrase commonly used to emphasize the interconnections between society, the environment, and economics (or people, plan and profit), such that long-term prosperity requires accomplishing sustainability in each.

worse-off principle

A priority principle advocated by Thomas Regan according to which one ought to prioritize avoiding greater harms when adjudicating rights conflicts.

Miniride principle

A priority principle advocateed for by Thomas Regan according to which fewer rights violations are preferable to more rights violations, all other things being equal.

tragedy of the commons

A situation in which there is a shared or "common" (or common resource to which multiple agents have access, and each agent's acting in ys that are individually rationally set interested would result in the depletion resource to everyone's detriment.

Ecosystem

A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment

Ecological restoration

A variety of assisted recovery in which historical considerations are incorporated into efforts to improve as space from an ecological perspective; ecological restoration asims to improve the ecology of a place in the future by maintaining or re establishing continuity with the past.

Deep Ecology

An approach to environmental ethics that emphasizes the interconnectedness of people with the nonhuman environment, as well as the importance of addressing the underlying ideological and systemic cause of ecological degradation.

Care ethics

An approach to ethics that emphasizes the role of attachment, emotion, connection, plurality, trust, dependance, openness, and empathy in good ethical engagement and reasoning; care ethics contrasts with approaches to ethics that emphasize impartiality and pure rationality.

Shallow Ecology

Biodiversity should be preserved, as particular species of animals and plants provide us with medicines, food and raw materials.

Negative Rights

Claims against things being done to a person ( or entity) -- e.g., to not be exploited, not be discriminated against, and not be restricted in movement, association, or speech.

Peter Singer

Criteria for moral status based on sentience (ability to feel pain/pleasure), so moral worth includes animals. If we ignore them, we are guilty of Speciesism. All animals should receive equal preference. As plants are non-sentient, there is a problem in determining their interests in staying alive. They do not have intrinsic value. (Ap)

Argument to preserve all species

Each species has a unique and/or irreplaceable final value. If something has a unique and/or irreplaceable final value, then we have a duty to not destroy it (and prevent others from doing so). Therefore, we have a duty not to destroy species (and to prevent extinction when their endangerment is anthropocentric).

Eco-Holism

Environmental approaches that consider the importance of balance within an ecosystem. Emphasises not the rights of humans but the interdependence of all ecosystems. The environment is a whole entity, valuable in itself

subsistence hunting

Hunting that is crucial to survival and well-being-i.e., that serves basic or serious interests.

Moral subjects (patients)

Recipients of moral considerability

Paul Taylor

Respect of nature is a universal law for all rational beings, animals and plants should not have moral rights but legal rights to protect them (Ap)

Positive rights

Rights to something rather than rights against something, such as the right to access potable water or a nutritionally adequate diet.

prima facie duties

Rules or duties that to be followed unless there is a compelling reason to violate them into conflict another, stronger duty.

Virtue Ethics

Shifts the emphasis from duty to who we are and how we are to live in the natural world. A virtuous life in nature is a necessary condition of eudaimonia, human flourishing (Ap)

Biodiversity

The amount of biological or living diversity per unit area. It includes the concepts of species diversity, habitat diversity and genetic diversity.

historical justice argument

The argument that affluent people and nations have a responsibility to assist very poor people in less developed countries because in many places where there is significant poverty and food insecurity affluent nations contributed to creating the situation through their past activities.

Anthropocentricism

The belief that humans are the "masters" of the world with a unique set of rights and values. Nature is valuable only as a means to an end.

Environmental fascism

The criticism sometimes made against ecocentric views that their subordination of the individual to the communal good leads to unacceptable implications-e.g., killing large numbers of animals or restrictive reproductive policies.

Environmental injustice

The fact that unequal exposure to environmental hazards very often is unjustified and caused, at least in part, by problematic social and political factors. environmental justice movement Efforts to address the unjustified distribution of environ-

Climate injustice

The fact those most responsible for causing global climate change(wealth and mobility) while those least responsible are most exposed to its hazards (less wealth and mobility).

repugnant conclusion

The implication of aggregative consequentialism that it is better to have an enormous number of people whose lives are just barely worth living than a much smaller number of people with a very high quality of life.

pure time preference

The practice in welfare economics of discounting the value of future goods/bads just because they are in the future

harm principle

The principle that people ought to be able to engage in whatever activities they would like so long as it does not involve harming others.

Categorical imperative

The principle that rational agents always need to respect and treat each other as ends (autonomous beings with their own aims and intentions) and never merely as means.

Discount rate

The rate at which welfare economics decreases the value of future goods relative to current goods.

subjective final value (or subjective value)

The value that something has because it is valued by people for non instrumental reasons for its beauty, creativity, or symbolism.

Final value

The value that something has for what i is, rather than for what it does or provides. (If instrumental value is not exhaustive of its value; intrinsic)

stewardship model

The view that God has entrusted humans, rational beings with con-science created in the divine image, with caring for the rest of creation, which God also sees as good.

strong (absolute) anthropocentrism

The view that all and only human beings have inherent worth.

ratiocentrism

The view that all and only robustly rational beings, particularly those with the capacity for moral agency, are directly morally considerable

Biocentrism

The view that all living things---animals and plants---have interests that are directly morally considerable and therefore possesses inherent worth.

holism

The view that in environmental ethics what has primary value (or should be of primary concern) are ecological collectives, such as species or ecosystems, rather than individual organisms

relational accounts of value

The view that moral status is not entirely determined by an entity's capacities or internal properties, but also often depends on its relationships to others.

individualism

The view that only individual organisms are morally considerable, or that the rights, welfare, and good of individuals should be the primary focus of ethical concern.

Anthropocentrism

The view that the criterion for direct moral considerability (or having inherent worth) is being a member of the species Homo sapiens.

welfarism

The view that welfare of well-being is what is ultimately ethically significant.

Ecocentrism

The view that when it comes to environmental ethics, we need to prioritize what is best for the biotic community as a whole.

Principle of equal commensurate burdens and benefits

The view, advocated by Peter Singer, that like interests should be considered alike withouth respect to whose interests they are.

two-factor egalitarianism

The view, defended by Donald VanDeVeer, that adjudication of competing interests should consider both the level of the interest at stake and the psychological capacities of the individuals whose interests they are.

preservationists

Those who believe that ecosystem management should prioritize the protection of nature rather than providing goods and services for people.

Kantian Ethics

Universal law forbids too much exploitation and pollution of the natural world (Ap)

speciesism

Unjustified discrimination against non humans on the basis of factual differences that are not morally relevant

The land ethic

Values the health and wellbeing of the greater group and system especially the ecosystem rather than any individual organism.

Aldo Leopold

We must extend our social conscience from people to land, the natural world should not be viewed in terms of its economic worth to humans (DE)

inherent worth

When something is directly considerable because it has interests that moral agents ought to care about for its own sake

Speciesism

giving moral preference to the interests of members of one's own species, over identical interests of members of a different species, solely because it is a member of your species. Singer "speciesism is a prejudice no less objectionable than racism or sexism"

Nonidentity problem

it is not possible to harm future people in the sense of making them worse off than they would have otherwise been, since our actions and policies determine which future people will exists.

intrinsic value

possessing moral value merely because something exists; an object's or species' worth, based on its mere existence

prima facie wrong

something that ought not be done unless there are overriding considerations.

instrumental value

that which has value insofar as it benefits or is useful to the achievement of some end

Argument from participatory decision-making

the argument that the interests of nonhuman individuals ought not be taken into account because they cannot participate in collective decision-making processes.

Lifeboat ethics

the view, defended by Garrett Hardin, that affluent nations should not send food aid to low-income nations with high levels of malnourishment, nor should they take in large numbers of immigrants from them.

Climate justice

views the environmental and human impacts of climate change from the frame of social justice, human rights, and concern for indigenous people

moral status

worthy of one's ethical concern