PHILOSOPHY 102 (STOLZE)
Notes on Dale Jamieson, Ethics
and the Environment, chapter 1
Chapter One: The Environment as an Ethical
Question
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Nature and the Environment
Dualism and Ambivalence
Environmental Problems
Questions of Scale
Types of Harm
Causes of Environmental Problems
The Role of Technology
The Economic Perspective
Religion and Worldviews
Ethics, Aesthetics, and Values
Nature and the Environment
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Environment derives from an old French word meaning “to encircle” and includes all
living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region. But, as
Jamieson points out, it can also refer to one’s social surroundings.
Nature derives from the Latin term natura ("that which has been born“) was
employed in Latin as a translation of the Greek word physis (“body”), which
regarded plants, animals, and other features of the world as developing on their
own. The concept of nature as a whole, or the physical universe, expands on this
original notion.
We can also distinguish external from internal nature (e.g., human neurons).
Jamieson proposes that “perhaps it is a necessary condition for something to be
part of our environment that we think of it as what is subject to our causal control,
while no such condition applies to what we think of as nature” (p. 2).
Dualism and Ambivalence
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Dualism vs. Monism
The Problem of Ambivalence
The Complexity of Our Relationships to Humans and to Nature
Environmental Problems
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Skepticism about the Seriousness of Environmental Problems (e.g.,
Climate Breakdown)
Claim that We are Making Progress on the Problems
Claim that Nature is “Resilient”
Questions of Scale
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Local
Regional
Global
Types of Harm
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Human Quality of Life (e.g., loud music)
Human Health (e.g., pollution)
Non-Human Nature (e.g., extinction)
Causes of Environmental Problems
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Knowing the Cause of a Problem May Lead to its Solution
People Psychologically Respond Differently to Different Causes
Problem of Denial regarding Climate Breakdown
The Question of Technology
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Failures and Solutions
Trying to Buy Our Way out of the Problem
Irrelevant to the Needs of the World’s Poor
The Economic Perspective
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How Best to Allocate Two Types of Scarce Resources: Sources and
Sinks
Private Market Goods vs. Pure Public Goods
Future Generations
Religion and Worldviews
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Christianity and Anthropocentrism
Marxism and Economic Determinism
Ethics, Aesthetics, and Values
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Environmental Problems, Causes, and Solutions are Complex and
Multidimensional
Jamieson is a Methodological Pluralist