Environmental Ethics Exam 1 vocab

Imago Dei

Latin for "image of God." The belief that human beings are made in God's image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), which sets them apart from the rest of creation. (White)

Dominion

Rule or authority. In Genesis 1:28, the authority God gives human beings over the fish, the birds, and every living thing on earth. (White)

Subdue

To bring under control. In Genesis 1:28, God tells human beings to "fill the earth and subdue it." (White)

Stewardship

The view that human beings are caretakers of nature, which belongs to God, and must answer to God for how they use it. Often based on Genesis 2:15. (Pope Francis)

Sabbath

The seventh day, on which God rests from creating and which he makes holy. (Pope Francis)

Ecologic crisis

The serious and growing damage that human activity is doing to the natural world, such as pollution, climate change, deforestation, and species extinction. (Pope Francis)

Ecologic backlash

Nature's harmful and often unforeseen reaction to human changes in the environment. (White)

Atavism

Trying to solve modern problems by returning to the ways of our ancestors and giving up modern technology (from Latin atavus, "ancestor"). (White)

Prettification

Protecting or restoring small, attractive pieces of nature (parks, scenic areas) while leaving the larger economic and technological system unchanged. (White)

Anthropocentrism

The view that human beings are the most important beings in the world and that nature matters mainly for its usefulness to people. (White)

Dualism of man and nature

The belief that human beings are separate from and above nature rather than part of it. (White)

Animism

The belief that natural things such as trees, springs, and hills have their own guardian spirits that must be respected. (White)

Desacralization

Making something no longer sacred. White says Christianity desacralized nature by denying that spirits dwell in natural things. (White)

Voluntarism

A stress on the will and on right action rather than on knowledge and contemplation. White says Western Christianity was voluntarist. (White)

Natural theology

Trying to understand God by studying the world God made; trying to draw inferences about what God is like from what nature is like. (White) Extirpation

Biotic community

All the living things of a place (soil organisms, plants, animals, and people) seen as one community of interdependent members. (Leopold)

Land Ethic

Leopold's ethic, based on the principle that an action is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community, and wrong when it tends otherwise. (Rolston)

Environmental holism

The view that wholes, such as species and ecosystems, have moral importance in their own right, not just the individual organisms in them. (Rolston)

Non-anthropocentrism

The view that animals, plants, species, and ecosystems matter in themselves, apart from their usefulness to people. (Leopold)

Animal liberationism

Peter Singer's view that the suffering and interests of individual animals deserve equal moral consideration. A rival to Leopold's holism. (Singer)

Interdependence

The dependence of living things on one another, so that harm to one part of a system affects the rest. (Leopold)

Biotic pyramid

Leopold's picture of the land as an energy circuit, with many organisms at the base and few at the top, all linked by food chains. (Leopold) Pesticide

Synthetic chemicals

Human-made chemicals that do not occur in nature, which living things have had no time to adapt to. (Carson)

DDT

A powerful synthetic insecticide widely used after World War II. Silent Spring exposed its dangers, and it was later banned in the U.S. (Carson)

Nonselective

Harming many kinds of living things rather than only the target species. (Carson)

Biocide

Carson's name for a nonselective pesticide that kills many forms of life, not just its target. (Carson)

Resistance ("super races")

The ability of an insect population to survive a pesticide. It develops because the survivors of each spraying breed and pass the ability on. (Carson)

Flareback

The return of a pest in greater numbers than before, after a chemical has held it down for a time. (Carson)

Biological control

Controlling pests by natural means, such as their predators, parasites, or diseases, rather than by chemicals. (Carson)

Applied entomology

The practical use of the scientific study of insects to manage insect problems. (Carson)

Control of nature

The idea that nature exists for human convenience and should be mastered. Carson calls it arrogant. (White)

Affluence

Wealth; having more money than one needs for the basic necessities of life. (Singer)

Strong formulation

Singer's principle that we must prevent something bad if we can do so without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance. (Singer)

Rule utilitarianism

The view that we should follow the rule that would produce the best results if everyone followed it. Singer rejects a "fair share" rule because not everyone will follow it. (Singer)

Supererogatory

Describes an act that is good to do but goes beyond what duty requires. Singer argues that giving to famine relief is not supererogatory but a duty. (Singer)

Level of marginal utility

The point at which giving one more dollar would cause as much suffering to the giver as it relieves in the recipient. (Singer)

Moderate formulation

A weaker version of Singer's principle: we must prevent something bad if we can do so without sacrificing anything morally significant. (Singer)

Utilitarianism

The moral theory that the right action is the one that produces the greatest overall good and the least suffering. (Rolston)

Speciesism

Unjustly favoring the interests of one's own species over those of other animals. (Singer)

Effective altruism

A movement, inspired by Singer, that uses evidence and reason to find the ways of helping others that do the most good. (Singer)

Earth Summit (Rio, 1992)

The United Nations conference on environment and development, where poor nations argued that relieving poverty should come before environmental protection. (Rolston)

Win-win

A policy that benefits both people and the environment. Schmidtz calls such outcomes positive-sum. (Schmidtz)

Redistribution

Changing how wealth and resources are divided, usually to give more to the poor (for example, through taxes or land reform). (Rolston)

Overpopulation

A human population too large for the land and resources available to support it. (Hardin)

Overconsumption

Using resources beyond what is needed or sustainable, especially by wealthy nations. (Rolston)

Underdistribution

The unjust sharing of the earth's goods, so that some have far too much and many have too little. (Rolston)

Poaching

Illegally hunting or killing protected animals. (Rolston)

Right to subsistence

The right to the basic necessities of life, such as food, water, and shelter. (Rolston)

Superkilling

Causing the extinction of a species, which destroys not only individuals but the species' whole future line of life. (Rolston)

Commons

A resource that is shared by and open to everyone, with no owner who can exclude others (for example, a shared pasture, the oceans, or the atmosphere). (Schmidtz)

Tragic commons

A shared resource that is used up through misuse because of a perverse incentive structure, which rewards those who overuse it and punishes those who conserve it. Its ruin is the "tragedy of the commons." (Hardin)

Perverse incentive

A reward structure that encourages harmful behavior. (Hardin)

"Angels" and "abusers"

Terms from the slides for those who limit their use of a commons (angels) and those who overuse it (abusers). (Hardin)

Carrying capacity

The largest population or level of use that a resource can support without being damaged. (Hardin)

Invisible hand theory

Adam Smith's view (Wealth of Nations, 1776) that people pursuing their own interest in a free market are led, as if by an invisible hand, to promote the good of all. (Hardin)

Fouling our own nest

Polluting the environment we ourselves depend on. (White)

Appropriation (privatization)

Taking a resource out of the commons and giving an owner control over who may use it. (Schmidtz)

Regulation

Keeping a resource public while limiting and allocating the right to use it (for example, by fees, merit, lottery, or waiting in line). (Hardin)

Temperance

The virtue of self-control or moderation. (Hardin)

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Latin for "Who shall watch the watchers themselves?" The problem that the officials who enforce rules can themselves be corrupted. (Hardin)

Appeal to conscience

Asking people to limit their use of a commons voluntarily, without penalties. Hardin says it is self-eliminating and psychologically damaging. (Hardin)

Mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon

Rules and penalties that restrict everyone's use of a commons, adopted with the agreement of most of the people affected. (Hardin)

Liberty vs. right

A liberty is permission to do something that others may still interfere with. A right cancels others' liberties, giving the holder the power to exclude them. (Schmidtz)

Original appropriation

The act by which a resource once open to all first comes under the control of particular people, who may then exclude others. (Schmidtz)

Mixing theory

Locke's view that when you mix your labor with an unowned natural good, it becomes your property. (Schmidtz)

Lockean proviso

Locke's condition that taking something out of the commons is justified only if you leave "as much and as good" for others. (Schmidtz)

Zero-sum game (win-lose)

A situation in which one party's gain is another party's loss. (Schmidtz)

Positive-sum game (win-win)

A situation in which everyone involved can gain. (Schmidtz)

Justice in transfer

The principle that passing ownership from one person to another is just if it happens without force or fraud. (Schmidtz)

Negative-sum game (lose-lose)

A situation in which everyone involved loses, like the blasted reef. (Schmidtz)

Time capsule (argument)

Schmidtz's point that leaving a resource unowned does not preserve it for the future, because an open commons gets used up. To save something for later, someone must first own and protect it. (Schmidtz)

CITES and the Endangered Species Act

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (1973) and the U.S. law protecting endangered species. Schmidtz argues that their ban on all trade in green sea turtles, even farm-bred ones, undercut the Cayman Turtle Farm. (Schmidtz)

Communal property

A system of rights that gives particular resources to the members of a group (a commune, club, or association), who may exclude outsiders. (Schmidtz)

Private property

A system of rights that gives particular resources to particular owners to use as they please, excluding others and excluding detailed control by government. (Schmidtz)

Externality

A cost (negative externality) or benefit (positive externality) that someone's use of a resource imposes on a third party who is not involved, such as pollution downstream from a factory. (Schmidtz)

Internalizing responsibility

Making the producers and users of a resource bear the costs their use imposes, rather than passing those costs on to others (externalizing). (Schmidtz)