Exam #1 Study Guide: Classical Western Ideas of Nature and Environmental Ethics

Vocabulary flashcards generated from the Exam #1 Study Guide on Classical Western Ideas of Nature and Environmental Ethics.

John Stuart Mill's First Meaning of Nature

Everything that exists and the laws governing it, such as gravity or biological processes.

John Stuart Mill's Second Meaning of Nature

The world as it exists without human intervention.

Mill's Argument on Following Nature

The concept that telling people to 'follow nature' is meaningless under natural laws, and irrational or potentially immoral when defined as nature without human intervention.

Human Relationship to Nature (Mill)

The perspective that humans should study and understand nature's laws to improve the world and make it consistent with justice and goodness, rather than simply imitating it.

Uncultivated Land (Locke)

Land that John Locke describes as laying in waste if it is not being used for human benefit.

Locke's Justification of Private Property

The principle that individual ownership is justified because our labor belongs to us, and applying that labor to nature makes the property ours.

Tragedy of the Commons

The practice of taking all available resources, resulting in resource depletion and destruction, often linked to the bystander effect and leaving problems for others.

Human Supremacy

An anthropocentric worldview defined by Eileen Crist where Earth belongs to humanity, placing humans above all other life forms with the power to dominate and control nature.

Consequences of Human Supremacy

Failure to limit expansion, inability to see beauty in nature, and the exploitation of animals and natural resources.

The Land Ethic

Aldo Leopold's concept that changes the role of humans from conquerors of the land to plain members and citizens of it, enlarging community boundaries to include soils, waters, plants, and animals.

Carson's View on Pesticides

Rachel Carson's description of chemicals as sinister, unnatural entities that assault the environment, contaminate soil and water, and cause a chain of poisoning and death.

Grammar of Animacy

Robin Wall Kimmerer's concept of using language and pronouns (such as she/he) to affirm kinship with nature by viewing it as a living entity rather than an object for extraction.

Utilitarianism

A moral framework focused on producing the greatest happiness for the most people while minimizing pain and suffering.

Environmental Application of Utilitarianism

Extending the goal of minimizing pain and suffering to all living beings, including animals, in environmental decision-making.

Disadvantages of Utilitarianism

Ethical dilemmas caused by subjective views of happiness, ignoring pre-existing conditions, and potential oppression or exploitation of fewer people for a perceived greater good.

Khantian Ethics

An ethical approach also described as deontological ethics, centered on rationality and respect, holding that humans possess inherent worth and moral responsibility.

Universal Law Formula

The first part of Khant's categorical imperative: act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

Humanity Formula

The second part of Khant's categorical imperative: our duty to respect others by treating humanity always as an end and never as a mere means.

Disadvantage of Khantian Ethics

Difficulty in applying the perspective to society because it struggles to provide guidance or weigh different personal beliefs and competing values.

Anthropocentrism

A human-centered philosophical perspective placing human beings as the central entities in the universe, treating non-human nature strictly as a resource to serve human needs.

Traditional Environmental Ethics

An anthropocentric approach addressing environmental problems (like lowering carbon emissions) primarily because harming the environment directly harms human health and quality of life.

Ecocentrism

An environmental worldview that assigns inherent moral value to the entire natural world, including living organisms and non-living ecological systems, independent of human usefulness.

Intrinsic Value in Ecocentric Ethics

The principle that nature has value for its own sake, allowing ecosystems, species, and biodiversity to be considered morally important regardless of human utility.

Cahen's Argument on Ecosystems

The perspective in ecocentric debates that ecosystems lack intrinsic value because they are not goal-directed and therefore lack moral interests.

Callicott and Rolston's Perspective

The argument in ecocentric debates that ecosystems can hold intrinsic moral value as ecological wholes.