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The Need for a New Environmental Ethic

Richard Routley
Why does Richard Routley think we
need a new environmental Ethic?
What is the basic (human) chauvinism,
described by Routley?

Types of Ethics

Dominant ethical tradition nature is the dominion,


property, of man and we are free to do with it as we
please

Stewardship ethical tradition

Co-operative perfector of nature ethical tradition

thus it appears that a NEW ethics is called for, but wait!

Perhaps modifications of the previous positions will


permit extension of ethics instead.

Let's see what we can come up with:

Modification of dominant position perhaps by


claiming unforeseen future consequences of dominating
activity, we can, in the end, line up ethical dominant
behavior with behavior permitted under a new
Environmental Ethic.

Sylvan rejects thisnope it wont workto just


have a deeper,more sophisticated
enlightened self-interest approach..

Group Activity:
Last Man Thought Experiment

Why did Routley devise the Last Man Thought


Experiment?

What is the freedom principle?

Are the actions of the last man morally wrong? Create


an argument to support your stance.

The Last Man Thought Experiment

It is a thought experiment designed to show that the


prevailing principles of the dominant Western ethical
tradition are unable to provide a satisfactory basis for an
environmental ethic.

An adequate ethic of concern for the non-human world


must therefore have very different foundations.

The shared core assumptions of western ethics (which


Sylvan calls a "super ethic") include a freedom principle,
according to which agents are permitted to act as they
please provided that they do not (1) harm others
(understood usually, though not always, as other
persons), or (2) harm themselves.

Sylvan labelled this anthropocentric principle basic


human chauvinism, because it affirms that only human
interests and concerns feature in moral deliberation and
choice.

The last man thought experiment was devised to


refute this basic core principle, and thus expose the
inadequacy of traditional western ethics to support an
environmental ethic.

Ethical principles must be universal and therefore apply


not just to actual situations but to all possible situations.

It is for this reason that thought experiments are


important intuition jumps and play a central role in
testing ethical principles.

The last man (or person) surviving the collapse of the


world system lays about him, eliminating, as far as he
can, every living thing, animal or plant.

What he does is quite permissible according to basic


[human] chauvinism, but on environmental grounds
what he does is wrong. (Routley 1973, 207f)

Because he is the last human survivor, there are no other


human interests to be considered, and the chauvinistic
liberty principle therefore provides no grounds for
moral condemnation of his actions.

However it is clear to an environmentally enlightened


conscience that the actions of the last man are morally
dreadful.

If you share Sylvan's intuition that these terminal


actions are morally reprehensible, and if there are no
anthropocentric considerations to support this intuition,
then there must be some non-anthropocentric
considerations or values which explain the evil of the
acts.

Must a Concern for the Environment Be


Centered on Human Beings?

Bernard Williams
Group Activity
Should we think beyond humans, when
discussing ethics?
-Extend morals to experience of animals?
-Extend morals to non-animal things, though
they have no experiences, do have interests?

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