Introduction to Ethics and Environmental Ethics

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Introduction to Ethics and Environmental Ethics
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Some Classic Characteristics of Ethics

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

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Approaches to Ethics

1. Metaethics and Conceptual Analysis
2. Descriptive Ethics
3. Normative Ethics
4. Practical Ethics

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Some Neighbors of Ethics

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

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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.

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Traditional Ethical Theories The Big Picture
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Moral Principles

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

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Introducing JusticeHarry Brighouse

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

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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?

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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

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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.

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Environmental Ethics

• Robert Elliot

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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

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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

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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

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