School of thought
Environmental Ethics
Movement
Classification
- Period
- c. 1973 CE onward
- Regions
- North America (origin), Europe (origin), Oceania (origin)
- Domains
- Ethics, Philosophy of Nature
Overview
Environmental Ethics challenges the anthropocentric assumption that only humans have intrinsic moral value. Leopold's 1949 'land ethic' is the field's founding precursor text; environmental ethics itself took shape as a self-conscious sub-discipline of philosophy in the early 1970s, when Naess's 'deep ecology' argued that all living beings have intrinsic worth and ecofeminists like Plumwood linked the domination of nature to the domination of women and indigenous peoples.
Key ideas
- Intrinsic Value of Nature: Nature has value in itself, not merely as a resource for human use. Rivers, forests, and species deserve moral consideration independent of their utility.
- Deep Ecology: Naess distinguished 'shallow' environmentalism (protecting nature for human benefit) from 'deep' ecology (recognizing the equal right of all life forms to flourish).
- Land Ethic: Leopold: 'A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.'
Key figures
Aldo Leopold (precursor, d. 1948) · Arne Naess · Rachel Carson (precursor, d. 1964) · Val Plumwood · Holmes Rolston III
Positions held
- Ecocentric Holism
Question scope: Moral Standing in Nature
Influenced by
- Buddhism
Naess placed Buddhism among the ultimate premises from which the deep ecology platform can be derived, alongside Christianity and Spinoza's philosophy.
- Romanticism
- Transcendentalism
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Environmental Ethics
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, §1 (environmental ethics emerged as a new sub-discipline of philosophy in the early 1970s); §2 cites Richard Routley's 1973 paper and Arne Naess's 1973 shallow/deep ecology paper as marking this emergence, the start date used here
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, §2 — Formation: the discipline emerged almost simultaneously in the United States, Australia and Norway in the early 1970s.
- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949), 'The Land Ethic' (a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community)
- Arne Naess, 'The Deep Ecological Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects', Philosophical Inquiry 8 (1986), pp. 10–31 (the derivational diagram of the platform, with Buddhism among its ultimate premises)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, §3 (the platform as a middle ground between Buddhist, Christian, Daoist and other underlying orientations)
- A Sand County Almanac — Aldo Leopold
- Silent Spring — Rachel Carson
- Ecology, Community and Lifestyle — Arne Naess