Virtue Ethics and Environmental Ethis

A virtue ethicist would consider how an environmentally virtuous person would act
1. What sort of virtues a person should develop to act in this way.
  1. These virtues such as sustainability should be developed to assist the development of the community,
    1. When considering the whole environment as a community, VE would say we should care for animals to encourage the community to flourish.
  2. Environmental virtue ethics sees a virtuous life in nature as a necessary condition for human flourishing/eudaimonia.
2. They do not ask why environmental preservation is important for humanity but what characterises an environmentally good person.
  1. Shift emphasis from duty and consequences to who we are and how we live in the natural world.
Alisdair MacIntyre
1. Compassion is an appropriate virtue to have towards a suffering human and there is no relevant moral difference between human and animals suffering.
  1. One should therefore extend the same compassion to non human animals who suffer as to humans.
Jennifer Welchman
1. Argues a focus on virtue can encourage good stewardship of the Earth.
  1. For example through the virtues of benevolence and loyalty.
2. Argues VE is successful because it tries to discover which 'moral dispositions (if any) will motivate people to be concerned for the environment so that the development of environmentally sensitive character may be encouraged.'
  1. In short, it encourages moral agents to become people who are genuinely caring about the environment rather than someone who cares for the environment because they've been told to or because it's in their interest.
    1. This will lead to more committed and extended care for the environment.
Louke van Wensveen
1. Many virtue ethicists consider that the telos of environmentalism ought to be sustainability.
  1. van Wensveen highlights the need for the eco system to be sustained by human self-control.
  2. She argues that there are four tests for any virtuous act to ensure sustainability.
    1. Repression test - will people be repressed by any environmental reform?
    2. Alienation test - will environmental change cause the alienation of the people?
    3. Guilt test - is any environmental change being done out of a sense of guilt for past mistakes?
    4. Fetishism test - is any environmental change being made because it is the fashion of the moment?
2. She noted that there are good character traits and bad ones connected with environmentalism.
  1. Good include - care, loving life, respect for creatures, thrift rather than destructive self-indulgence and inner peace
    1. These traits bring respect for and harmony with the environment.
Aristotle
1. Believed in a heirarchy in nature, with humans at the top.
  1. This suggests he would support a conservationist apporach to environmental ethics - looking after the environment because it benefits humans.
2. Upheld that there was a 'golden mean' that was the right degree of courage, kindness, temperance etc.
  1. The answer for the environment may be to take the middle path - not using too much energy, not over-indulging, not consuming an excess of food.
    1. This allows us to live happily and be fulfilled without doing too much damage to the environment.
Criticisms
1. Not always easy to know which virtues are best for a particular environmental issue.
2. Some environmental role models such as Naess may be too extreme.
3. Difficult to apply in practice. For example, building a new road through a beauty spot... Does virtue ethics help to decide between natural beauty, employment and better transport links?
4. We have to apply cultural relativity to identify such people as virtuous. Appealing to the character traits of virtuous people cannot be wholly decisive.

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Virtue Ethics and Environmental Ethis

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	Created by Carys Wilkinson almost 8 years ago