Introduction to Ethics and Environmental Ethics

1
Introduction to Ethics and Environmental Ethics
2
Some Classic Characteristics of Ethics

• Central concern is the well-being of people.
• Consider not just yourself but also all others
  who stand to be affected.
• Moral evaluations and judgments should be
  impartial.
• Moral evaluations and judgments should be
  universalizable.
• Moral evaluations and judgments are inescapable.
• Moral considerations typically override other
  considerations.

3
Approaches to Ethics

• Metaethics and Conceptual Analysis
• Descriptive Ethics
• Normative Ethics
• Practical Ethics

4
Some Neighbors of Ethics

• Religion
• Law
• Politics
• Economics
• Other Social Factors

5
Some Challenges to Ethics

• Ethical Nihilism ethics do not exist.
• Cultural Ethical Relativism ethics are relative
  to particular cultures.
• Individual Ethical Relativism ethics are
  relative to particular individuals.

6
Traditional Ethical Theories The Big Picture
7
Moral Principles

• Principle of Nonmaleficence
• Principle of Beneficence
• Principle of Utility
• Principle of Respect for Autonomy
• Principle of Justice

8
Introducing JusticeHarry Brighouse

• Justice can help us navigate between conflicting
  values.
• Justice can help steer social science and policy.
• Justice has practical significance.

9
Justice

• Classic Formulation of Formal Justice Equals
  must be treated equally and unequals must be
  treated unequally.
• So what counts as relevant conditions for equal
  or unequal treatment

10
Material Conditions of Justice

• Equal and unequal treatment concerns how
• burdens and benefits are distributed. This could
• be based on some of the following
• 1. Need 6.
• 2. Effort 7. Race and Ethnicity
• 3. Contribution 8. Gender
• 4. Merit 9. Economic Class
• 5. Full Equality 10. Country of Origin

11
Distributive Justice

• This concerns what material conditions are used
  to determine how burdens and benefits are
  distributed.
• Distributive Justice Equity.
• Most past and contemporary theories of justice
  focus almost exclusively on distributive justice.

12
Environmental Ethics

• Robert Elliot

13
How can we justify a particular environmental
ethic

• 1. Anthropocentrism
• a. Use traditional moral theories
• b. Create some new ethical theory or
  approach
• 2. Moral Extensionism
• 3. Novel Features Approach

14
How can we flesh out a particular environmental
ethic

• 1. Anthropocentrism
• a. Strong
• B. Weak
• C. Economics-Based
• D. Future Generations
• 2. Zoocentrism (variants include psychocentrism
  and sentientism)
• 3. Biocentrism

15
More Ways to Flesh Out an Environmental Ethic

• 4. Ecocentrism
• 5. Universal Moral Consideration
• And the three radical ecologies
• 6. Social Ecology
• 7. Deep Ecology
• 8. Ecological Feminism or Ecofeminism

16

• Environmental Ethics are based on values.
• But what are values