The Good Green Life

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hale
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
The Right

This chapter addresses the book’s core distinction by contrasting the right and the good. It utilizes a thought experiment – the Parable of Wicked and Wild – to argue that the imperative of justification is paramount to building a viable environmental ethics. Such an environmentalism would seek to build a “viridian commonwealth” in which citizens and industries act with and for reasons that are or could be subjected to the scrutiny of all citizens.

scholarly journals Systemowe ujęcie biosfery w etyce Edwarda Goldsmitha

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-115
Author(s):  
Anita Ganowicz-Bączyk
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Deep Ecology ◽  
The Right ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Moral Respect

Environmental ethics has been intensively developed since the 1970s and is promoted most of all by philosophers and philosophizing naturalists. Various attitudes have been adopted, differing deeply ontologically, anthropologically, and axiologically. In this article, the ethics of Edward Goldsmith are presented. Goldsmith understands the biosphere as a systemic whole, which should be treated with moral respect and responsibility by humankind. In the beginning, the notion of holism is defined and described against the background of biocentric and anthropocentric ethics. Next, the views that inspired Goldsmith’s theory are presented, i.e. A. Naess’ deep ecology, J. Lovelock and L. Margulis Gaia’s hypothesis, the views of E. Odum, W.B. Cannon and C.H. Waddington. Then the main points of biospheric ethics are presented. Finally, Goldsmith’s proposal of mental and civilizational shift is submitted. The biospheric morality, which is supported by religious norms, is explained. This type of morality should allow humankind to achieve the right way of development.

scholarly journals A Thought Experiment on Sustainable Management of the Earth System

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jobst Heitzig ◽  
Wolfram Barfuss ◽  
Jonathan F. Donges
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Game Theory ◽  
Optimal Control ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Right ◽  
Safe Operating ◽  
Qualitative Decision

We introduce and analyse a simple formal thought experiment designed to reflect a qualitative decision dilemma humanity might currently face in view of climate change. In it, each generation can choose between just two options, either setting humanity on a pathway to certain high wellbeing after one generation of suffering, or leaving the next generation in the same state as this one with the same options, but facing a continuous risk of permanent collapse. We analyse this abstract setup regarding the question of what the right choice would be both in a rationality-based framework including optimal control, welfare economics and game theory, and by means of other approaches based on the notions of responsibility, safe operating spaces, and sustainability paradigms. Despite the simplicity of the setup, we find a large diversity and disagreement of assessments both between and within these different approaches.

scholarly journals Under Darwin’s Cosh? Neo-Aristotelian Thinking in Environmental Ethics

2005 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 22-23
Author(s):  
Michael Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
General Position ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
Individual Human

As a first shot, one might say that environmental ethics is concerned distinctively with the moral relations that exist between, on the one hand, human beings and, on the other, the non-human natural environment. But this really is only a first shot. For example, one might be inclined to think that at least some components of the non-human natural environment (non-human animals, plants, species, forests, rivers, ecosystems, or whatever) have independent moral status, that is, are morally considerable in their own right, rather than being of moral interest only to the extent that they contribute to human well-being. If so, then one might be moved to claim that ethical matters involving the environment are best cashed out in terms of the dutes and responsibilities that human beings have to such components. If, however, one is inclined to deny independent moral status to the non-human natural environment or to any of its components, then one might be moved to claim that the ethical matters in question are exhaustively delineated by those moral relations existing between individual human beings, or between groups of human beings, in which the non-human natural environment figures. One key task for the environmental ethicist is to sort out which, if either, of these perspectives is the right one to adopt—as a general position or within particular contexts. I guess I don’t need to tell you that things get pretty complicated pretty quickly.

scholarly journals Eudaimonism about Virtue and Qualified Agent Right Action: Some Prospects for Environmental Virtue Ethics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Duncan Christian Martin
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Right Action ◽  
Environmental Virtue ◽  
Concrete Action ◽  
Environmental Virtue Ethics ◽  
The Right ◽  
Action Guidance

<p>In this thesis, I aim to show that virtue oriented approaches to environmental ethics are in a position to provide satisfying answers to two central ethical questions: “What kind of person should I be?”, and “What should I do?” I argue that two such approaches – Rosalind Hursthouse’s environmental virtue ethics and Philip Cafaro’s account of environmental vice – provide insights about how we ought to be with regard to the environment, in terms of character and attitudes. I then defend Hursthouse’s account of right action against several objections. First, I respond to the worry that a shortage of environmental exemplars might count against Hursthouse, by showing that non-virtuous agents can conceive of what to do by seeking to avoid acting from environmental vices. Second, I respond the worry that her account of right action fails to generate the right result for non-virtuous agents in some cases, by showing that such cases can be accounted for by appeal to the distinction between action guidance and action assessment. Third, I consider the worry that her theory will fail to provide concrete action guidance. Theories which seek to provide concrete action guidance in all contexts face serious problems of their own, I respond. Further, I maintain that Hursthouse is not ruled out from providing the sort of action guidance her critics are interested in.</p>

scholarly journals Considering All (Non) Living Things: A Biocentric Orientation in Blair Richmond’s The Lithia Trilogy

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Ida Farida ◽  
Yudi Permadi ◽  
Trisha Adelia ◽  
Nolly Liviani
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
The Other ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Gaia Hypothesis ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Living Things ◽  
The Right

This article elucidates the perspective of The Lithia Trilogy, written by Blair Richmond, towards environment. This research is executed based on ecocriticism, a literary approach which focuses on the exploration of environmental issues in literary works. The theory is taken from Laurence Buell on the meaning of ecocriticism. From the analysis of the structure of the novels, it is found that the trilogy presents the idea of biocentrism, an assumption that the earth and all of the living things on it have the right to fulfill their needs without any molestation from the other, especially from humans. Biocentrism is the opposing concept of Anthropocentrism, both of which are studied in environmental ethics. Two issues of conflicts are presented in this trilogy: herbivores versus omnivores and environ-mentalists versus capitalists. The result of the research reveals that the novels suggest not to eat animals to save fauna and socialize Gaia hypothesis to save all living and non-living things on the earth. As one work of young adult literature, this trilogy explicitly teaches those suggestions to young readers.

scholarly journals A STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AMONG THE TEACHER EDUCATORS OF KUVEMPU UNIVERSITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 289-295
Author(s):  
Dr. Shivakumar GS
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Concerted Action ◽  
The People ◽  
Decent Life ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right

Every human being has the right to decent life but today there are elements in our environment that tend to militate against the attainment and enjoyment of such a life. The exacerbation of the pollution of environment can cause untold misery. Unhappiness and suffering to human beings, simply because of our lack of concerns for the common good and the absence of sense of responsibility and ethics for sustaining a balanced eco-system. If we are to aspire to a better quality of life – one which will ensure freedom from want, from disease and from fear itself, then we must all join hands to stem the increasing toxification of this earth. What we need in order to defuse this environmental time bomb is immediate concerted action of all the people, but such needed action will come only if we reorient such citizenry values, i.e., imbibe them with proper awareness and values (ethics), specifically those that will lead to a greater concern for preserving balance in the ecosystem, besides teaching them how to save the environment from further degradation, and to help, make it more healthful and progressive place to live in, springs from a strong sense of social responsibility. KEYWORD: Environmental Ethics

EXISTENTIAL MEANING OF HUMAN DESIGN PROJECTS

Chelovek RU ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 229-243
Author(s):  
Pavel Tishchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pain Relief ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
The World ◽  
Design Projects ◽  
Main Representative ◽  
The Right ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
New Time ◽  
The Way

The idea of human design rests in the heart of European humanist project. The existential meaning of the idea of human design is analyzed. A piece of the work by J. Pico della Mirandola is interpreted as a prophecy expressing the fate of the New European era (by M. Heidegger). Several aspects could be distin-guished in this prophecy: the throwing of man into the world without his place, form and purpose, the right and demand to define both place and form and raison d 'être by reason. Historically, special exper-iments of solving the fundamental mystery are considered - what it means to be human from Descartes to modern transhumanistic projects of human self-construction? The meaning of the New Time era is de-fined through J. Pico 's proposed existential task. It is emphasized that at every historically special stage of subjugation of the nature of man, the dream of almighty condensed in the strange topos of about-being. Faced with the impossibility of defeating death, and without abandoning new projects of its sub-jugation, the modern era generates existential substitution. Suffering is put on the scene of death as the main representative of evil. The result is euthanasia technologies that view death not just as a lesser evil compared to suffering (pain), but as the most radical mean of achieving the new goal - radical pain relief. A thought experiment is being conducted to demonstrate the possibility of self-destruction of mankind motivated by the desire to solve the difficult problems of mankind in the way of its euthanasia.

scholarly journals Implications of Some Selected Ethical Theories for Environmental Sustainability and Development in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Ephraim Ahamefula Ikegbu ◽  
Maduka Enyimba
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Environmental Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Study ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Negative Implication ◽  
The Right

Human actions and conduct have both positive and negative effects on humankind and its environment. This is why ethicists have propounded different theories that are supposed to guide peoples’ conduct in order to distinguish the right from the wrong. Environmental ethics as an aspect of environmental philosophy attempts a justification of the rightness and wrongness of human activities as they affect other non-human members of the society or environment. Despite the efforts of both ethicists and environmentalist, humans have continued to conduct themselves in a manner, most unhealthy to the environmental resources. This is the problematic that informed this research on “Ethics, Environment and Philosophy:  Towards Sustainable Development in Africa”. The main objective is to apply selected ethical theories to the philosophical study of environment in order to ascertain their implications for sustainable development in Africa. To achieve this goal, philosophical methods of critical analysis, conceptual clarification and deduction were employed in the examination and exposition of the nature and tenets of the following selected ethical theories: Platonism, Hedonism, Subjectivism, Teleologism and Deontologism. It was discovered upon application that, these theories present both positive and negative implication for environment, philosophy and development. Hence, humans must be positively minded whenever they undertake any action be it from the perspective of Platonists, Hedonists, Subjectivists, Teleologists or Deontologists. If there must be development and sustainability in the environment, then the positive aspects of each of these theories must be harnessed to yield what this paper describes as environmental eclecticism. Keywords: Ethical Theories, Environment, Philosophy, Sustainable Development, Environmental Eclecticism.

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