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Environmental Ethics

Moving the moral question : what do we owe animals, the living world and future generations, and ?

1949 – …

LeopoldNæssSinger

A current born in the twentieth century from the ecological crisis and the animal question, which contests the dominant anthropocentrism: moral worth does not stop at humanity. and his land ethic extend the moral community to soils, waters and species; grounds deep ecology in the intrinsic worth of all living things and the human as one member among others; and carry the animal cause, one in the name of suffering, the other of rights; preaches reverence for life, a responsibility toward future generations. A family shot through with tensions, from concern for the sentient individual to concern for ecological wholes, it shares the refusal to treat nature as a mere resource.

2 / 80 axescoverage 3%

WikipediaWikidata

Relation to othersRelation to the worldEcocentrism — Moral circle (Structuring position)Member among others — Humanity's place in nature (Structuring position)EcocentrismMember among others2OF 80 AXES3% covered
radius ∝ commitment◎ structuring position○ rim = uncovered
The essentialsthe positions at the core of this system of thought

  1. Moral worth does not stop at humanity: the must open to sentient animals, to the living, even to ecosystems.

    Ecocentrism45%Moral circlesee the position →

  2. The human is not nature's but a of the community of the living, or its responsible steward.

    Member among others60%Humanity's place in naturesee the position →
Relation to truthWhat can be known0/0 positioned
— no positions recorded
Relation to oneselfWho I am, how to live0/0 positioned
— no positions recorded
Relation to othersWhat we owe each other1/1 positioned
Major
0
35
20
45
Justification

The founding gesture of the current is to widen the beyond humans alone, against the tradition's . Where to draw the new boundary divides the family: to every being capable of suffering for , to every being for , to themselves for and . All reject the idea that the human alone counts.

Singer, Animal Liberation (1975) · Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949)

Relation to the worldWhat there is1/1 positioned
Major
0
40
60
Justification

Against the program of and , the human as "master and possessor of nature", the current refuses as the primary relation to the natural world. It divides between two answers: the human as a of a community of the living, with no privileged position, in and ; or the responsible whom their very power obliges, in .

Næss, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle (1976) · Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility (1979)