This Is Environmental Ethics: An Introduction

Provides students and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to the growing field of environmental philosophy and ethics
 
Mitigating the effects of climate change will require global cooperation and lasting commitment. Of the many disciplines addressing the ecological crisis, philosophy is perhaps best suited to develop the conceptual foundations of a viable and sustainable environmental ethic. This is Environmental Ethics provides an expansive overview of the key theories underpinning contemporary discussions of our moral responsibilities to non-human nature and living creatures.
 
Adopting a critical approach, author Wendy Lynne Lee closely examines major moral theories to discern which ethic provides the compass needed to navigate the social, political, and economic challenges of potentially catastrophic environmental transformation, not only, but especially the climate crisis. Lee argues that the ethic ultimately adopted must make the welfare of non-human animals and plant life a priority in our moral decision-making, recognizing that ecological conditions form the existential conditions of all life on the planet. Throughout the text, detailed yet accessible chapters demonstrate why philosophy is relevant and useful in the face of an uncertain environmental future.
* Questions which environmental theory might best address the environmental challenges of climate change and the potential for recurring pandemic
* Discusses how inequalities of race, sex, gender, economic status, geography, and species impact our understanding of environmental dilemmas
* Explores the role of moral principles in making decisions to resolve real-world dilemmas
* Incorporates extensive critiques of moral extensionist and ecocentric arguments
* Introduces cutting-edge work done by radical "deep green" writers, animal rights theorists, eco-phenomenologists, and ecofeminists
 
This is Environmental Ethics is essential reading for undergraduate students in courses on philosophy, geography, environmental studies, feminist theory, ecology, human and animal rights, and social justice, as well as an excellent graduate-level introduction to the key theories and thinkers of environmental philosophy.

List of contents

Acknowledgments x
 
About the Companion Website xii
 
Introduction: Environmental Ethics in the Era of Ecological Crisis 1
 
One Planet, Many Worlds 1
 
The Time Is Now 4
 
Environmental Ethics Is about the Present and the Future 7
 
The Climate Crisis Is the Greatest Moral Challenge Humanity Has Ever Faced 10
 
We Can Change 14
 
Seven Basic Premises 17
 
Seven Key Objectives 20
 
Summary and Questions 22
 
Annotated Bibliography 24
 
Online Resources 25
 
1 Moral Principles and the Life Worth Living 30
 
1.1 Philosophy and the Environment 30
 
1.1.1 Philosophy and the Life Worth Living 30
 
1.1.2 The Precautionary Principle 35
 
1.2 Human Chauvinism versus Responsible Human-Centeredness 37
 
1.2.1 Human-Centeredness: Taking Responsibility 37
 
1.2.2 The Desirable Future 38
 
1.3 An Aerial View of Moral Extensionism 40
 
1.3.1 Is Moral Extensionism a Good Idea? 40
 
1.3.2 The Problem of Sentience 42
 
1.3.3 What Counts as a Living Thing? 44
 
1.3.4 Summary and Questions 49
 
Annotated Bibliography 50
 
Online Resources 54
 
2 Two Examples of Moral Extensionism: Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and Their Critics 58
 
2.1 The Capacity to Suffer: The Utilitarian Extensionism of Peter Singer 58
 
2.1.1 What Is Moral Extensionism? 58
 
2.1.2 Peter Singer's Animal Liberation and the Principle of Equality 61
 
2.1.3 Weighing Interests and Predicting Consequences 64
 
2.1.4 Moral Extensionism and the Climate Crisis 67
 
2.1.5 How Do I Know a Thing Can Suffer? 68
 
2.2 "Subject-of-a-life": The Kantian Extensionism of Tom Regan 72
 
2.2.1 The Case for Animal Rights and Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative 72
 
2.2.2 A Subject-of-a-life 74
 
2.2.3 Whose Subject-of-a-life Matters? 82
 
2.2.4 Subjecthood, Intellectual Wherewithal-- and Zombies 85
 
2.2.5 A Feminist Critique of the Subject-of-a-life Criterion for Moral Considerability 86
 
2.2.6 Summary and Questions 89
 
Annotated Bibliography 92
 
Online Resources 95
 
3 Two More Examples of Moral Extensionism: Christopher Stone, Holmes Rolston III, and Their Critics 99
 
3.1 The Rights of Trees: The "Moral Standing" Extensionism of Christopher Stone 99
 
3.1.1 Moral Extensionism, the Concept of "Wilderness," and Human Chauvinism 99
 
3.1.2 Do Trees Have Rights? The Portability of Moral Standing 106
 
3.1.3 Moral Standing versus Consequences/Rights versus Goals: What Matters More? 111
 
3.1.4 Moral Standing and the Concept of the Future 114
 
3.1.5 The Interests and Rights of the Voiceless 119
 
3.2 Respect for Life: The "Good of Its Own" Extensionism of Holmes Rolston III 123
 
3.2.1 Respect for Life and an "Ethic for Species" 123
 
3.2.2 Valuing the Threat of Extinction over the Capacity for Suffering 126
 
3.2.3 Is a "Species Line" a Living System? 131
 
3.3 Summary and Questions 133
 
Annotated Bibliography 136
 
Online Resources 138
 
4 Two Examples of an Ecocentric Ethic: Aldo Leopold, Arne Naess, and Their Critics 143
 
4.1 Human-Centeredness, Human Chauvinism, and Ecocentrism 143
 
4.1.1 Ecocentrism and the Limits of Moral Extensionism 143
 
4.1.2 Ecocentrism as Psychic Transformation and Moral Paradigm Shift 147
 
4.2 Aldo Leopold, Ecological Conscience, and the "Plain Citizen" 152
 
4.2.1 The Role of Language in Ecocentric Thinking 152
 
4.2.2 Scientific Knowledge and the Ecocentric Disposition 156
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About the author

WENDY LYNNE LEE is a Professor of Philosophy at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught for 30 years. She is the author of more than 45 scholarly essays in areas such as philosophy of mind, feminist theory, non-human animal welfare, ecological aesthetics, and philosophy of ecology. She has contributed to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy and Oxford Bibliography and authored several books, including Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

Summary

Provides students and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to the growing field of environmental philosophy and ethics

Mitigating the effects of climate change will require global cooperation and lasting commitment. Of the many disciplines addressing the ecological crisis, philosophy is perhaps best suited to develop the conceptual foundations of a viable and sustainable environmental ethic. This is Environmental Ethics provides an expansive overview of the key theories underpinning contemporary discussions of our moral responsibilities to non-human nature and living creatures.

Adopting a critical approach, author Wendy Lynne Lee closely examines major moral theories to discern which ethic provides the compass needed to navigate the social, political, and economic challenges of potentially catastrophic environmental transformation, not only, but especially the climate crisis. Lee argues that the ethic ultimately adopted must make the welfare of non-human animals and plant life a priority in our moral decision-making, recognizing that ecological conditions form the existential conditions of all life on the planet. Throughout the text, detailed yet accessible chapters demonstrate why philosophy is relevant and useful in the face of an uncertain environmental future.
* Questions which environmental theory might best address the environmental challenges of climate change and the potential for recurring pandemic
* Discusses how inequalities of race, sex, gender, economic status, geography, and species impact our understanding of environmental dilemmas
* Explores the role of moral principles in making decisions to resolve real-world dilemmas
* Incorporates extensive critiques of moral extensionist and ecocentric arguments
* Introduces cutting-edge work done by radical "deep green" writers, animal rights theorists, eco-phenomenologists, and ecofeminists

This is Environmental Ethics is essential reading for undergraduate students in courses on philosophy, geography, environmental studies, feminist theory, ecology, human and animal rights, and social justice, as well as an excellent graduate-level introduction to the key theories and thinkers of environmental philosophy.

Product details

• Authors: Steven D Hales, Steven D. Hales, Wendy Lynne Lee, Wendy Lynne Hales Lee, Wl Lee, Lee Wendy Lynne
• Assisted by: Steven D Hales (Editor), Steven D. Hales (Editor), Steven D. Hales (Editor of the series), Hales Steven D. (Editor of the series)
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.07.2022
• EAN: 9781119122708
• ISBN: 978-1-119-12270-8
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: This is Philosophy
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; Philosophie, Umweltethik, Umweltforschung, Angewandte Ethik, Philosophy, Environmental Studies, Applied Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Ethilk