Environmental Ethics
Michael Lacewing
enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk
© Michael Lacewing
What is environmental
ethics?
• Environmental issues:
– Pollution
– Depletion of natural resources
– Impact of overpopulation on ecosystems
• How do ethical systems respond?
– What is of value? Just human beings? Just
individuals or also species, ecosystems, natural
objects (rivers, mountains)?
– How should we make decisions about these
issues?
Our question
• Which effects of pollution, depletion of
natural resources, overpopulation,
matter morally? Do only human beings
‘count’, or do effects on the
environment matter as well? Why?
Hedonist utilitarianism
• Only pleasure and pain matter morally.
• So plants, ecosystems, natural resources,
landscapes and species don’t count.
Oi! That
hurts!
Hedonist utilitarianism
• Environmental issues should therefore
be decided on the basis of their effects
on individual animals and human
beings – particularly human beings –
alone.
Preference utilitarianism
• The right thing to do is to maximise preferences.
• People have preferences about things they don’t
experience, e.g. the desire that the rainforests
continue to exist ‘unspoiled’.
I want lakes to be
unpolluted.
Pollution?
Wha’sh that,
then?
Preference utilitarianism
• But the environment, species,
resources, etc. still only has (and as
much) value as we give it in our
preferences.
Arguing in the opposite
direction
• The predicted effects of environmental
problems won’t be that bad; and technology
will help fix problems.
• Preferences for preserving the environment
are very weak compared to the need to use
it.
• Discounting: uncertain bad consequences in
the distant future don’t count as much as
certain benefits now.
Virtue ethics
• Is not polluting the environment and conserving
natural resources part of a virtuous life?
• Virtuous people respect what has value. But does
anything apart from human well-being have value?
But I’m having
a wonderful
life, darling.
Virtue and the self
• Destruction of the environment, like vandalism,
displays a bad character, e.g. greed, inability to
appreciate beauty.
• Being human involves
a relationship to the
environment – both
physical and
‘spiritual’, as shown in
our aesthetic and
personal relationships
to animals, plants,
landscapes, and in
science.
Virtue and the self
• But why single this out as important to
a good human life? It is just as human
to treat nature as an object to be
mastered.