8.1 Environmental Ethics
Introduction to Environmental Ethics
Acknowledgment of Country
Acknowledgment of being on unceded sovereign Gadigal country, emphasizing the ongoing impacts of colonization and the importance of recognizing Indigenous sovereignty.
Acknowledgment of the Bunya Mountains in Southwest Queensland, the Waka Waka Jarawa, and Barangum people, highlighting the deep cultural and historical significance of this site.
The Bunya Mountains are described as an incredible place with ancient conifers from Gondwana land, underscoring the region's unique biodiversity and ecological importance.
Ethics Modules Overview
Week 8: Introduction to environmental ethics. Tutorial: Biodiversity offsetting and multispecies justice, delving into the complexities of conservation and ethical obligations to various species.
Week 9: Carbon ethics and climate ethics. Tutorial: Nuclear power, Prometheanism, and climate justice, exploring the ethical dimensions of energy production and the distribution of climate-related burdens and benefits.
Week 10: Food ethics (two lectures). Tutorial: Indigenous food sovereignty and just transitions, examining ethical considerations in food production, distribution, and the rights of Indigenous communities.
Week 11: Water ethics and navigating ethical dilemmas. Tutorial: Reenchantment of nature, focusing on ethical issues related to water resource management and the importance of reconnecting with the natural world.
Lecture Focus
Basics and foundations for analysis, providing a comprehensive understanding of key concepts in environmental ethics.
Definition of ethics, clarifying the scope and nature of ethical inquiry.
Ethical perspectives, presenting a range of approaches to ethical decision-making.
Consequentialism versus deontological thinking, contrasting two major ethical frameworks.
Philosophies underpinning environmental ethics, exploring the intellectual foundations of environmental ethics.
Environmental ethical positions: ecofeminism, radical environmentalism, ecosophy, deep ecology, and indigenous ethics, introducing various ethical stances on environmental issues.
Defining Ethics
Ethics comes from the Greek word "ethos," meaning custom, highlighting the cultural and social origins of ethical norms.
Ethics and morality are often argued to separate humans from the rest of nature, prompting critical reflection on the human-nature relationship.
Ethics is about what customs ought to be and is a value-based system constraining individual behavior to enable social cooperation, emphasizing the role of ethics in promoting collective well-being.
Anthropologists and paleoanthropologists discuss trust and cooperation in human evolution, similar to hierarchies in ant and bee colonies, offering insights into the evolutionary roots of ethical behavior.
The role of language in defining human uniqueness is questioned, encouraging a reevaluation of anthropocentric assumptions.
Ethical Behavior
Questions of whether ethical behavior is a mythical standard or context-dependent are raised, stimulating discussion on the nature of ethical norms.
Conditions for ethical behavior (according to Ayala):
The ability to anticipate consequences, highlighting the importance of foresight.
The ability to make value judgments, emphasizing the role of values in ethical decision-making.
The ability to choose between alternative actions, underscoring the significance of agency and freedom.
Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology
Revisiting the diagram from GS2121 to understand the linkages between ontology, epistemology, and axiology, providing a framework for interdisciplinary analysis.
Ontology: What is real versus unreal, exploring fundamental questions about existence and reality.
Epistemology: Knowledge systems; how knowledge is obtained and transmitted, examining the nature and sources of knowledge.
Axiology: The ethical dimension; what is good versus wrong, focusing on values and ethical principles.
These exist at different scales, from individual to collective forms (family, culture, society, law, science), illustrating the multifaceted nature of ethical considerations.
Personal ontologies can change over time, reflecting the dynamic nature of individual beliefs and values.
Differences in ontologies can lead to disagreements, even among like-minded people, underscoring the challenges of achieving consensus.
Epistemology: How Do You Know What You Know?
Sources of information: intuition, respected people, books, news media, social media, emphasizing the importance of critical evaluation of information sources.
Importance of discernment, underscoring the need for critical thinking and sound judgment.
Axiology: What Do You Value?
How values are determined, exploring the factors that shape individual and collective values.
Rigidity versus flexibility in axiology, examining the extent to which values are fixed or adaptable.
Determining rights and wrongs, addressing the complexities of ethical decision-making.
Considerations in law: evidence, punishment, justice, highlighting the relevance of ethical principles in legal contexts.
Justice can be subjective and differ from legal definitions, underscoring the challenges of achieving fairness and equity.
Fundamental Questions
Is morality socially mediated?, prompting reflection on cultural and social influences on ethical norms.
Are there universal principles?, exploring the possibility of shared ethical values across cultures.
Examples of Ethical Questions
IVF, cloning, de-extinction of the dire wolf, raising ethical questions about reproductive technologies and genetic engineering.
Neuralink chip implants, prompting considerations of technological enhancements and human identity.
Neutering pets, sparking debate about animal rights and welfare.
Use of herbicides and pesticides, raising concerns about environmental and health impacts.
Questioning normalized practices, encouraging critical examination of societal norms and assumptions.
Ethical Questions Through Scale
Ethical considerations at meta versus micro levels, illustrating the importance of considering both macro and micro perspectives.
Example: Oil spill with readily available remediation versus putting poison in someone's tea with an antidote, highlighting the complexities of ethical decision-making in different contexts.
Biodiversity offsetting: Is it ethically sound to destroy in one area and regenerate in another?, questioning the effectiveness and ethical implications of conservation strategies.
Moral dilemmas: The classic train track dilemma, exploring fundamental questions about moral choices and consequences.
Ethical dilemmas in science: Using documentation from Nazi experiments, raising concerns about research ethics and the use of unethical data.
Personal Reflection
Importance of writing out personal ontology, epistemology, and axiology, encouraging self-awareness and ethical consistency.
Addressing the disconnect between personal values and everyday actions, promoting ethical integrity and congruence.
Ethical Traditions and Perspectives
Expressions of ethics and their underpinnings, providing a nuanced understanding of ethical diversity.
Moral realism: Expressing opinions as objective truths, examining the claim that moral statements can be objectively true.
Moral subjectivism: Incorporating values in expressions, recognizing the role of values in shaping ethical judgments.
Emotivism: Showing feelings in moral judgments, acknowledging the emotional dimensions of ethical decision-making.
Prescriptive: Recommending actions based on ethical stance, emphasizing the practical implications of ethical beliefs.
Origins of Ethics
Consequentialism: Doing what's best for most. Problems: Justifying dreadful acts and difficulty in predicting consequences. Example: War for the greater good, a philosophical approach emphasizing outcomes but fraught with challenges in application.
Utilitarianism: Increasing happiness or well-being. Problem: Trouble accounting for justice and individual rights. Example: Harvesting organs from a healthy person to save four others, a theory aiming for maximum happiness but potentially infringing on individual rights.
Prometheanism: Perceiving Earth as a resource for human needs and overcoming environmental problems through innovation, particularly technology.
Intuitionism: Believing moral knowledge is innate.
Deontological Ethics
Some acts are inherently right or wrong, regardless of consequences.
The principle of the thing is crucial.
Connections to religious traditions (e.g., the Ten Commandments) and indigenous worldviews (immemorial law).
Potential for fatalistic outcomes.
Spiritualism
Potential for ethical nihilism.
Linking to beliefs about simulated reality (e.g., the "head in the computer" thought experiment).
Virtue Ethics
Focus on moral character rather than specific actions.
Emphasis on individuals' way of life.
Situational Ethics
Rejecting prescriptive rules.
Decisions based on unique situations.
Example: A scenario from the show "Love My Way" involving grief and infidelity.
Quote from Aldo Leopold
"Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching—even when doing the wrong thing is legal."
Absolutism vs. Relativism
Absolutism: Absolute ethical rights and wrongs.
Relativism: Ethics defined by time, place, and context.
What are Environmental Ethics?
The moral relationship of human beings and the value and moral status of the environment.
Studying the ethical basis of environmental protection.
Addressing past and current environmental damage and finding alternative thinking.
Questions of moral permissibility regarding actions like putting out natural fires or culling feral animals.
Ethical dilemmas such as mining in unspoiled areas.
Balancing human well-being and environmental protection.
Intrinsic versus instrumental value of the environment.
Multispecies ethics: Is multispecies justice possible in a world that "eats itself to live?"
Key Points
Environmental ethics as a branch of applied philosophy.
Linkage of values and ethical systems to practices, policies, and laws.
Tension between individual and community interests.
Tension between idealist and pragmatist viewpoints.
Ethical Responses to Nuclear Power
Applying ethical expressions and underpinnings to nuclear power.
Examples of moral realism, subjectivism, emotivism, and prescriptivism.
Analysis through consequentialism, utilitarianism, Prometheanism, intuitionism, deontology, spiritualism, virtue ethics, and situational ethics.
Ethical Philosophies
Anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism.
Anthropocentrism: Humans have more intrinsic value than other life.
Recognizing the difficulty of escaping anthropocentrism.
Aristotle's view: Nature made for the sake of man.
Links to resources, preservationism, egocentric ethics, liberalism, laissez-faire capitalism, neoliberalism, homocentric ethics, industrial centrism, technocentrism, and capitalism.
Rooted in the Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian philosophy.
Critiques of anthropocentrism and its role in environmental destruction and colonization.
*Christianity seen as a tool of control that removed the relationships between people and nature.
Dominion over nature in Genesis.
Colonizing mindset: extraction, individualization, entitlement and property.
Colonizing mindset continues into neo ethics and the green movement can still be very white.
Biocentrism
Earth's organisms being centrally important.
Focus on bioegalitarianism, multispecies justice.
Can certain life be treated unequally (wolfs and E. Coli)?
Common acceptance that insecticides and pesticides can kill other forms of animals but wildlife can't.
What is biocentrism when considering STIs and their rights to live?
Ecocentrism
Extends ethics to all of the Ecosphere.
Can a certain ecosystem process be more important than a community of human beings.
Obligation to help other species?
Prejudice to our own attitudes when we say were bio eccentric or eccentric.