Environmental Ethics Overview

Environment

• Environment is the sum total of all surroundings of a living organism, including natural forces and other living things.
• It provides conditions for development and growth as well as danger and damage.

Three Major Perspectives in Environmental Ethics

• Anthropocentric model: Human beings are the central or most significant entities in the world, humans are the most important species on the planet and they are free to transform nature and use its resources.
• Biocentric model: All other organisms have inherent value and should be protected.
• Ecocentric model: Humankind is a part of a greater biological system or community and we have a significant role as stewards or guardians of nature.

Prudence and Frugality

• Prudence: Making thoughtful and responsible choices based on a consideration of potential consequences, risks, and benefits.
• Frugality: Careful supervision of one's resources.

What is Freedom?

• The ability to make choices and perform those choices.
• The ability to be what we want and to decide and create oneself.

Freedom Itself

• The quality or state of being free.
• The capacity to choose what we want.
• An inner awareness of right and wrong traced to our free will.
• An intrinsic and essential property of a human person.

What is a Social Contract?

• An agreement between a group of people to give up certain rights and accept a central authority to protect their other rights.

Government

• The distribution system of power and authority which is maintain social order.

Origin of Social Contract

• Thomas Hobbes: English philosopher who believed society needed a strong king to escape the brutality of the "State of Nature".
  • State of Nature: Brutal, where there is no government.
  • Social Contract: Individuals surrender some freedoms to a sovereign authority (an absolute monarch) to escape the State of Nature.
  • Purpose of Government: To provide protection and order.

The Social Contract According to Hobbes

• The people and the king have a contract, but once the king is in power, he cannot be overthrown and has absolute power.
• People live in peace without rights.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer.
• State of Nature: Human's are good and compassionate by nature, but can be corrupted by civilization.
• Social Contract: People vote on all matters, people are the sovereign, and have the right to overthrow the government.
  • Follow the "general will" and set aside personal preferences.
• Purpose of Government: To enforce order and the social contract, and the “general will”.

Intersubjectivity

• Shared awareness and understanding among persons; "inter-" among or between, "subject" conscious being.

Intersubjectivity as Ontology: The Social Dimension of the Self

• Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.
• Ontology: Concerned with understanding the nature of being, existence, and reality; What truly exists and how different entities relate to each other.

Karol Wojtyla or Saint Pope John Paul II

• Participation: The essence of the human person; through participation, the person is able to fulfill one's self.
• Focus: The human person is oriented toward relation and sharing in the communal life for the common good.

Martin Buber

• I-Thou Relationship: A mutual sharing and connection between two people; experience our wholeness not in relation to ourselves but in relation to another.

Explain the Authentic Dialog That is Accepting Others Regardless of Individual Differences

• Martin Heidegger: German philosopher (known for text "Being and Time")
  • Dasein: "Being there"
  • Conversation: A dialog.
  • Dialog is a conversation that is attuned to each other and to whatever they are talking about; humanity is progressively attuned to communication about Being.

Society

• It is an organized group of people whose numbers interact frequently and have common territory and culture.
• A large social group sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

Agricultural Form of Society

• Further evolution of pastoral and horticultural society.
• Agrarian: A society based on the ownership of land.
• Horticultural: Focuses on the intensive cultivation of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other plants in smaller plots.

Industrial Society

• Based on the used of specialized machinery in the production of goods and services.

Post-Industrial Society

• Based on knowledge, information, and the sale of services.

Virtual Society

• A community or social interaction that takes place primarily through digital or online means.

Theories of Society

• St. Aquinas Natural Institution:
  • Family is a natural institution essential for the preservation of the human race and the promotion of virtue.
  • Family is founded on the bond of marriage, a sacred and indissoluble union between one man and one woman.

Machiavellianism: Absolutism and Society

• Niccolò Machiavelli: Italian Renaissance political philosopher, historian, diplomat, and writer; known for The Prince.
• The Prince: Focuses on leadership and political power.
• Criminal virtue: To be cruel in the name of state and yet still good as a leader.
• Absolutism: A single, central authority holds absolute power over the state and its subjects.

Explore the core concepts of environmental ethics, including anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric perspectives. This quiz also delves into the ideas of prudence and frugality in environmental decision-making. Test your understanding of how human actions can impact nature and our responsibilities towards it.