How is Ethical Philosophy
Relevent to the Anthropocene?
•  Anthropocene largely defined by how humans
negatively affect environment
•  Science tells us how humans negatively affect
environment (ex. CO2 and Global Warming)
•  Philosophy and Science tell us how to solve issues
•  Science gives us technology
•  Philosophy helps us with policy
What is Ethical Philosophy?
•  Hard to define, so let’s break it up
•  Meta-ethics: Questions concerning the practice and
field of ethical philosophy itself
•  Normative ethics: Ethical theories
•  Applied ethics: Specific ethical issues
Meta-Ethics Overview
•  “meta” means after or beyond
•  Meta-ethics is like a bird’s eye view of the entire ethical
project
•  Do ethical statements have truth value?
•  What is the origin of ethical concepts?
•  How do we come to know ethical truths?
Cognitivism vs. Noncognitivism
• Cognitivism: ethical statements
express propositions, which can
be true or false
• Noncognitivism: ethical
statements are not propositions
and aren’t true or false
Cognitivism
•  Moral Realism: There exist true ethical
propositions
•  (Moral anti-Realism: There do not exist
true ethical propositions)
•  Error Theory: Ethical statements are
false propositions (anti-Realist)
Moral Realism
•  Moral Platonism: ethical propositions are about
abstract ethical objects—the Form of Justice, Love,
Forgiveness, Generosity, etc.
•  Like mathematical statements refer to abstract objects
(numbers)
•  How do we come to know ethical Forms?
•  Divine Command Theory: ethical propositions are
about God’s morally perfect nature
•  Popular meta-ethical theory in Protestantism
•  Euthyphro Dilemma: is something good because God
says so or does God say so because it is good?
Noncognitivism
•  Emotivism: ethical statements are merely expressions
of emotion/personal taste (anti-Realism)
•  “Murder is morally wrong.” just means “I hate
murder!!!”
•  Ethical statements no different from statements about
favorite food/color
•  “Generosity is good” = “The color red is pretty”
•  Really just means “I like the color red”
Arguments for Moral Realism
•  Intuition—no more reason to deny
ethical intuitions than our intuition
that there is an external world
•  Can’t live life without presupposing
ethics
Arguments for Moral anti-Realism
•  Many different ethical opinions
•  Can’t prove an ethical statement
(with qualifications)
•  No difference between ethical beliefs
and personal tastes
Moral Realism vs. antiRealism
•  Pro MR: Differences in opinion does not mean that
there is no truth of the matter—there are differences in
opinion in science.
•  Pro MR: Difference between ethical statements and
statements of taste—ethical statements are intellectual;
whereas, statements of taste are sensational
•  Anti-MR: Just because it’s hard to live without ethics,
does not mean that ethics concerns truth
•  Moral Realism—56% of philosophers
•  Moral anti-Realism—28% of philosophers
Applied Ethics
•  Deals with specific ethical problems
•  abortion, capital punishment, animal rights, bioethics,
etc.
•  Trolley Problem, Stealing from the Rich,
Normative Ethics
•  Concerned with creating ethical theory that applies to
all ethical situations
•  Tries to extract what is good from ethical intuitions/
beliefs (ex. Consequentialism)
•  Impartiality, Intuitiveness, Reasonableness, Modesty
(variability), Applicability
•  Can then use theory to figure out unclear ethical issues
(Trolley Problem, Stealing from Rich)
Virtue Ethics
•  Emphasizes moral character
•  For ex., helping another person would be good because
it would be charitable or benevolent (traits of a person)
•  Founded by Aristotle
•  Virtue—trait a person values/has (ex. Honesty)
•  Practical wisdom—knowing the right amount of some
trait (one can be too honest)
•  Happiness—overall moral character
Deontology
•  Kantianism
•  Emphasizes moral actions and duties
•  Must act from duty
•  Highest good must be good without qualification
•  Consequences do not determine morality of actions, as
good things can arise from bad acts and vice versa
•  Only accordance with moral law is good
•  Treat people as ends, and imagine actions as universal law
•  Moral absolutism
Consequentialism
•  Emphasizes consequences of actions for moral
determination
•  Ends justify the means
•  Utilitarianism
•  Maximize happiness and minimize pain
•  Aggregate happiness vs. individual happiness
•  Relative Ethics
Back to the Anthropocene
•  If moral realism true, must create policies that are
moral
•  Must create policies that are in line with correct moral
theory
•  If moral anti-realism is true, perhaps moral principles
need not be consulted
•  How do we make laws if moral anti-realism is true?
References
•  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-cognitivism/
#ConCogSub
•  http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/
•  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-realism/#2
•  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/secularoutpost/2014/04/29/
morality-and-atheism-an-exchange-with-prof-feser/
•  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-anti-realism
•  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
•  http://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl