CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL THEORIES

Preference & Pluralistic Utilitarianism CONDITIONAL DEONTOLOGY

INTRODUCTION Rossian Ethical Theory
The utilitarian perspectives of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill as Hedonistic Utilitarianism. INTRODUCTION
● The primary concern: consequences must lead to the greatest PLEASURE of the greatest number. ● A reaction to Kantian Ethics and Utilitarianism.
Preference and Pluralistic Utilitarianism are Non-Hedonistic Utilitarianism. ● There are exceptions for the performance of moral duties.
● Both reject that pleasure/pain are the only intrinsic good/bad. ○ Exceptions depend on the consequences of the actions.
○ Consequence is not the only morally relevant factor. Other factors include the
● Preference Utilitarianism – pleasure is NOT the intrinsic good.
relationship that a person has with other persons, actions that a person has done
● Pluralistic Utilitarianism – pleasure is NOT THE ONLY intrinsic good.
to another person in the past, and actions other people have done to a person
● Proponents of Preference Utilitarianism ○ William David Ross (1877 – 1971)
Richard Hare (1919 - 2002) ● The important moral factor: CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SITUATION.
Peter Singer (1946 - ) ● Prima Facie and Actual Duties
● Proponents of Pluralistic Utilitarianism ○ Prima Facie Duties – actions that we are obliged to do; a tentative action/duty.
Hastings Rashdall (1858 - 1954) ■ Not the actual duty/action yet.
G.E. Moore (1873 - 1958) ● Actual duty – the action the WE REALLY MUST DO in a
Preference Utilitarianism situation
■ The conflict in prima facie duties.
The 7 Prima Facie Duties
•Duty of Fidelity •Duty of Beneficence •Duty of Justice
•Duty of Reparation •Duty of Selfimprovement
•Duty of Gratitude •Duty of Nonmaleficence

"How do we know our prima facie duties?"

PLURALISTIC UTILITARIANISM
There are other intrinsic goods aside from pleasure.
● Beauty, Knowledge, Power, Friendships, etc.
An action is morally right if it maximizes any of these intrinsic goods.
"How can a certain thing be desirable, yet independent of pleasure?"
"Which of the competing prima facie duties are our actual duties?"
● Prima Facie duties are SELF-EVIDENT.
○ It is CLEAR to us what we should do –it requires sufficient mental maturity.
● Determining actual duties requires careful examination or analysis of the situation.
○ Taking into accountthe convictions of well-educated people.
SUMMARY
● The Rossian Ethical Theory is a conditional deontology that answers the problems of Kantian
Ethics and Utilitarianism.
● Actions and consequences are not the only moral factors.
○ The relationship of the person
○ The circumstance in a situation
● Our relationships with other people and the circumstances of the situations we encounter
lead us to our prima facie duties
● Prima Facie duties are self-evident, but not yet the actual duty in a particular scenario.
● There is usually conflict in our prima facie duties. The solution is to examine carefully the
situation. The prima facie duty that outweighs the other prima facie duty is our actual duty.

● The right attitude towards a person in misery.

● The other intrinsic goods are desirable, even if no one is deriving pleasure from them.
●
SUMMARY
● Preference and Pluralistic Utilitarianism as Non-Hedonistic.
● Preference Utilitarianism – pleasure is NOT the intrinsic good, but PREFERENCE.
● Pluralistic Utilitarianism – pleasure is NOT THE ONLY intrinsic good.
 ➢ The principle of rectification of names
EASTERN VIRTUE ETHICS ➢ The way (tao) to social harmony is to perform the duties appropriate to one’s role in a
Confucian Ethics relationship.
INTRODUCTION ➢ Social disharmony arises if we do not know and perform the responsibilities defined by our
The Ru Tradition designations or names.
● Tradition of scholars
● To perform his/her designated duties, virtues are necessary.
● It refers to learned individuals who mastered history, poetry, music, astrology, archery,
● Parent-Child: INTIMACY
mathematics, and ancient rituals.
● Husband-Wife: DISTINCTION (RECIPROCITY)
● Studied the six classics (Book of Poetry, Book of History, Book of Rites, Book of Music, Book
● Ruler-Subject: RIGHTEOUSNESS
of Changes, and Spring & Autumn Annals).
● Elder Sibling-Younger Sibling: RESPECT BASED ON PROPRIETY (DECORUM)
● Confucius was the highest figure in the Ru tradition.
● Friend-Friend: FIDELITY
● The Jesuits of the 16th century, wanting to transform the Ru tradition into a school of
● The moral framework for Confucian virtue ethics is both natural and social.
thought or an –ism, had called the Ru tradition Confucianism.
○ Natural – mandated by heaven
● Confucianism evolved into various forms referred to as schools.
○ Social – moral excellence can be realized through social relations.
○ Schools of Mencius, Xunzi, and the Neo-Confucians
The Confucian Virtues
● Rival Schools
The Five Cardinal Virtues of Confucianism
○ Known as the Non-Confucian schools
Ren – Benevolence
○ Mohist school, Legalist school, and Taoism.
● The master virtue
● These schools dealt with the question of whether humans are inherently good or bad.
● Doing things that promote the well being of other people.
● Confucianism is specifically influential in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea,
● A person that has compassion for others
Japan, Vietnam, and Singapore.
Li – Propriety
Key Elements of Confucian Ethics ● Refers to doing things that are appropriate in a given situation.
● Classical Confucianism ● The proper ways of speaking, behaving, and dressing, among others in given social
● The JUNZI – the superior or noble person. situations.
○ Usually translated as gentleman, superior person, or noble person Shu – Reciprocity
○ In its original sense, refers to a person of noble birth or one who belonged to the ● It refers to doing things in accordance with the Golden Rule.
aristocratic class of society. Xiao – Filial Piety
● Confucius changed the meaning of junziinto a purely moral one. ● Doing things that show love, respect, and devotion to the members of one’s family.
● The Junzi and the Xiaoren. ● Duty of children to respect and take care of their parents.
● The Junzi as a stage in the development of moral excellence. ● It also includes celebration of ancestral rites that prescribe specific actions, offerings, and
○ Apprentice prayers.
○ Junzi Wen – Culture
○ Sage ● It refers to doing things that cultivate one’s sense and appreciation of culture, which includes
The Mandate of Heaven acquiring artistic skills in the areas of music, painting, dance, art appreciation by watching
● Mandate of Heaven “Tien-ming” concerts and plays, visiting art museums, and attending art exhibits.
○ The Pre-Confucian context SUMMARY
● Confucius’ concept of the Mandate of Heaven From Ru tradition to Confucianism
○ Heaven – a form of reality that preserves the moral order in the universe; The Junzi – the exemplary person
determines the path or way (tao) for humans towards moral excellence. • Has the Mandate of Heaven (The natural aspect of Confucian ethics)
○ An essential trait of the Junzi. • Virtuous in social relations (The Five Relations –the social aspect of Confucian ethics)
○ The study of the Confucian classics was a vital part in the education of a junzi. The Five cardinal Confucian Virtues
The Five Basic Relations • Ren – Benevolence
A human being is always in a certain relationship with fellow human beings. • Li – Propriety
Confucius identified five basic types of human relationships: • Shu – Reciprocity
1. Parent-Child 4. Elder Sibling-Younger Sibling • Xiao – Filial Piety
2. Husband-Wife 5. Friend-Friend • Wen - Culture
3. Ruler-Subject
● The society will achieve harmony only if each of the relationships that constitute it is in
harmony.
What is BIOETHICS ?
● Fritz Jahr C. CLONING (Beginning-of-Life Issues)
○ A study of ethics as it relates to living beings. ● Reproduction of the genetic material of an ancestororganism without sex.
○ Bioethics has its roots in traditional medical ethics. ● Reproductive cloning and Therapeutic cloning.
● Hippocrates ● PRACTICAL USE OF CLONING:
○ Traditional medical ethics – focused on the moral virtues the doctors should have ○ It can avoid passing on a genetic disease.
and how doctors should behave towards their patients and fellow doctors. ○ To produce superior children.
● Bioethics (aside from doctor-patient, doctor-doctor relationships) also tackles philosophical ○ To clone copies of former children or loved ones who have died.
question such as those concerning the: ➢ ETHICAL ISSUES
○ Nature of Morality • Reproductive technologies are UNNATURAL.
○ Moral personhood • Reproductive technologies THREATEN THE INSTITUTION OF FAMILY.
○ Value of life and being human • It perpetuates negative social attitudes towards infertile women.
● It also evaluates public policies on health issues, allocations of healthcare resources, and the • It promotes the view that CHILDLESSNESS is an ILLNESS that requires a cure from medicine.
direction of biomedical research. • On AID – children born in this process will have unknown biological fathers.
● Bioethics is a multidisciplinary enterprise • On genetic defects
○ Academic Bioethics • On IVF – there are serious medical risks for the woman.
○ Public Policy and Law Bioethics • On SURROGACY – a possibility that the surrogate or gestational mother will change her mind and
○ Clinical Ethics. decide to
● Progress of bioethics as a discipline is mainly due to the following factors: keep the baby.
○ Revolutionary developments in biomedical knowledge • The relevant status of the embryo in CLONING.
○ The growing concern about the power exercised by doctors and scientists • Human embryos as potential persons should not be used to achieve further benefit.
○ The legal cases and events that have gripped public consciousness and • A challenge to the UNIQUENESS of the cloned child.
generated public ethical discussions and debates.
ISSUES IN BIOETHICS D. ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION (Sustenance-of-Life Issues)
● Beginning-of-life issues – concern reproduction and pre-birth. ● A medical procedure in which a whole or partial organ from a deceased or living person is
● Sustenance-of-life issues – deal with medical practices for certain therapeutic purposes. transplanted into another individual, replacing the recipient’s non-functioning organ with the
● End-of-life issues – concern the treatment of those with terminal illnesses and the moral donor’s functioning organ.
status of their condition. ● Genetic Medical Procedures
● Information and Research issues – deal with the retrieval and use of patient information, and ○ GENETIC TESTING – usually done on an individual to determine whether he/she
the conduct of research . has the gene responsible for the disease suffered by his/her family members.
A. ABORTION (Beginning-of-Life Issues) ○ GENETIC SCREENING – it is done to determine the prevalence of a genetic factor
● The termination of pregnancy. in a population.
● Spontaneous abortions ○ GENE THERAPY – correction or prevention of disease through the addition and
● Induced abortions expression of genetic material that reconstitutes or corrects missing or aberrant
● UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS, IF ANY, IS ABORTION MORALLY JUSTIFIABLE? functions or interferes with disease-causing processes.
○ CONSERVATIVE VIEW – personhoodbegins in conception. ○ GENETIC ENHANCEMENT – a genetic modification which improves the function
○ LIBERAL VIEW – personhood begins at birth. of some sysystem.
○ MODERATE VIEW – personhood is attained at some point in the fetal E. EUTHANASIA
development, not as early as conception, but not as late as birth. ● The intentional ending of another’s life from a benevolent or kind motive.
B. ASSISTED REPRODUCTION (Beginning-of-Life Issues) ● Commonly known as “mercy killing’’.
● Techniques for creating a baby other than by sexual intercourse between a man and a ● ACTIVE EUTHANASIA – a physician directly causes a patient’s death.
woman. ● PASSIVE EUTHANASIA – a person simply allows a patient to die.
● ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION w/ THE HUSBAND’S SPERM (AIH) – semen with living sperms ● Euthanasia is either VOLUNTARY, INVOLUNTARY, and NONVOLUNTARY.
is collected from the male and introduced into female reproductive tract at proper time with ○ VOLUNTARY – it is done with the informed consent of the patient
the help of instruments. ○ INVOLUNTARY – it is done against the will of the patient.
● ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION w/ DONOR SPERM (AID) – the source of male reproductive ○ NON-VOLUNTARY – it is done to patients who do not have the capability to give or
material comes from a donor. to refuse their informed consent. However, it is done with the informed consent of
● IN VITRO FERTILIZATION (IVF) – also known as external fertilization. a person (parent, spouse, guardian) who is recognized by the law.
○ It is often used when the woman’s egg cannot get naturally fertilized by the man’s ● Brain Death and Persistent Vegetative State
sperm, due to a blockage in her fallopian tubes. ○ On the definition of death:
● SURROGACY – involves one woman gestating a baby to be raised by another. ■ Cardiopulmonary–when the cardiopulmonary organs ceased to function.
 ■ Whole Brain – if the higher brain and lower brain ceased to function. SUMMARY
■ Higher Brain – when the upper brain ceased to function. ● Bioethics is the study of ethics as it relates to living things. It is a multidisciplinary enterprise.
➢ ETHICAL ISSUES ● Bioethical issues can be classified into four:
● On EUTHANASIA ○ Beginning-of-life issues
● The difference between ending the suffering of the patient and letting the patient ■ Abortion
die. ■ Assisted Reproduction
● A physician-assisted suicide? ● AIH
● On Brain Death and PVS ● AID
● The argument on the higher brain and lower brain. ● IVF
● Surrogacy
F. TRUTH-TELLING AND INFORMED CONSENT (Information and Research Issues) ■ Cloning
● Truth-telling in medicine is important. ● Reproductive
○ Patients should be told the truth because of the respect due to them as persons. ● Therapeutic
○ Not telling the truth can be harmful to patients. ○ Sustenance-of-life issues
○ Truth-telling helps maintain a sense of trust between the doctor and patient. ■ Organ Transplantation
● INFORMED CONSENT – the patient is made aware of his/her medical condition and gives ■ Genetic Medical Procedures
his/her consent for treatment. ● Genetic Testing and Screening
● MEDICAL PATERNALISM – cases wherein doctors may find it more beneficial for their ● Gene Therapy
patient NOT to know the truth ● Gene Enhancement
➢ ETHICAL ISSUES ■ Healthcare Resource Allocation
● On PATERNALISM and the patient’s AUTONOMY. ○ End-of-life issues
● Treatment without informed consent can make the doctor liable for negligence. ■ Euthanasia
○ Comprehension and Free Consent ● Active and Passive
○ It is not absolute. ● Voluntary, Involuntary, Non-voluntary
G. CONFIDENTIALITY (Information and Research Issues) ■ Brain Death and Persistent Vegetative State
● Hippocrates ○ Information and research issues
○ Hippocratic Oath ■ Truth-telling and Informed Consent
○ "Whatever, in connection with my professional practice, or not in connection wit it, ■ Confidentiality
I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not ■ The Use of Humans in Research
divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret." BUSINESS ETHICS
● Moral basis: the guarantee of confidentiality elicits the full disclosure necessary for effective Ethical Issues in Business
treatment. •Systemic
● To overcome people’s natural reluctance to reveal such information, doctors must establish •Corporate
their patient’s trust. •Individual
● Respect for autonomy.
WHAT IS BUSINESS ETHICS?
➢ ETHICAL ISSUES
• It is a specialized study of moral right and wrong that focuses on business institutions, organizations,
● When conflict occurs between the doctor’s duty to maintain patient confidentiality and the
and activities.
duty to protect others from harm.
MORAL FEATURES OF BUSINESS ACTS
● When there are imminent threats, breaching confidentiality may be morally justified.
BUSINESS – refers to the human activity concerned with making and selling goods and services for the
● Confidential information may also be disclosed when it is required by statute or the courts.
sake of making a profit. Entrepreneurship, Partnership, and Corporation.
H. THE USE OF HUMANS IN RESEARCH • Business is an integral part of human
• RESEARCH refers to a class activity designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. society for two reasons:
• The NUREMBERG CODE of 1947 ● It is the institution primarily responsible for creating wealth, which enables societies to
• Declaration of Helsinki (1964) function well in terms of achieving and maintaining economic stability and political
• Belmont Report (1979) autonomy.
➢ ETHICAL ISSUES ● It is one of the most pervasive elements in society
● Respect for persons, beneficence, and justice serve as the foundational basis of Business acts have morally relevant features because…
the requirements for a research to be ethically sound. •They can be done knowingly and freely in that their agents can be aware of the morality of these acts,
● Informed Consent either as
● Participation of VULNERABLE groups of people in research. morally good or bad, and can have a choice on whether to perform these acts.
• They can lead to serious human injuries. ETHICAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS
• They can violate moral rights, which makes them appropriate objects of moral evaluations using A. SYSTEMIC ISSUES
deontological • Morality of Capitalism
moral standards. • Capitalism – minimal government control over the operations of business, which is in
• They can result in an unfair distribution of benefits and burdens, which makes them appropriate contrast
objects of with a socialist or command system.
moral evaluations using the moral standard of JUSTICE. •Issues on exploitation of workers
• They can lead to environmental damages. • Harmful effects of goods and services to consumers
• The perfect competition.
Arguments against Business Ethics
•If business practices deviate from perfect competition, capitalism losses its moral
● The Invisible-Hand Argument
justification.
• Based on the ideas of Adam Smith, contends that the economic forces governing the business activity
• Monopoly market
such as
• Oligopoly market
the law of supply and demand, are sufficient to ensure that this activity will lead to the common or
B. CORPORATE ISSUES
social good.
• Corporate Moral Responsibilities
•In selling highly demanded goods and services, a businessman may only be after earning great profits,
• Corporations as legal persons vis-à-vis corporations as moral persons.
but
• CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
unintentionally, he/she is also doing the society a great service.
• The shareholder and the stakeholder
Counterarguments
• On Corporate Environmental Responsibility
• The needs businesses satisfy are not always essential human needs.
• Does getting consumers to increase their level of consumption of business products encourage
• Businesses do not only cater to the natural needs of humans; for they also create the needs for their
waste and
products
misuse of limited natural resources?
usually through advertising.
• Are there moral limits to what businesses can do with animals to earn profit?
The Legal Argument • What are the things that businesses can do to be environmentally responsible?
•The law is sufficient to ensure that the business activity will not result in morally undesirable behaviors. • Advertising
Counterarguments • To inform consumers of the products available in the market.
•It equates the law with morality. • To persuade consumers to buy certain products.
•It falsely assumes that legal standards embody moral standards. • ASSOCIATIVE ADVERTISING – associates the use of products to certain nonmaterial needs
•What is legal is not necessarily moral. • PUFFERY – exaggerates the positive qualities of a certain product.
• MASS ADVERTISING – a product is repetitiously shown to consumers in various media.
The Amorality Argument • SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING – ads appear in the background of something else, which
•Business activity cannot meaningfully be said to be morally good or bad because moral principles consumers enjoy seeing or hearing.
allegedly do • Business ads are unethical when they are MANIPULATIVE, for in being so they undermine human
not apply to it. autonomy.
Counterarguments • Manipulation influences consumers to make decisions that are not in their best interests.
•It does not consider other aspects of business activity. • Discrimination
•If acts lead to serious injuries, injustices, and moral rights violations, then these acts are morally • It occurs when a decision is made against an employee, or prospective employee, due solely to
evaluable. the employee’s possession of certain characteristics or membership in a certain group, which are
The Immorality Argument not job relevant.
• The primary motive of engaging in business, namely PROFIT-MAKING, is inherently incompatible with • A discriminatory act may be isolated, when the act is done individually, or institutionalized, when
the the act is done by an institutionalized group such as a corporation.
motives of morality, especially the motive of benevolence. •Employee Privacy
• The profit motive is essentially SELFISH. • The right to privacy refers to the right of employees to determine the type and extent of
Counterarguments information that their company can know about them.
• Selfishness has a vicious and non-vicious kind. • Relevance, Consent, and Method
• Selfishness is considered vicious if it leads one to violate the moral rights of others or if it prevents • The company can only collect jobrelevant information from its employee.
one from • The company must seek the consent of its employees when getting personal information about
doing his/her moral duties to others. them.
• If the method used by the company to get information about its employees is inappropriate, the
company likewise violates the employees’ right to privacy.
•Anticompetitive Practices of Corporations ● ANTHROPOCENTRISM
• The existence of oligopoly markets • Human-centered
•It go against the spirit of perfect competition. • Only humans have moral status .
C. INDIVIDUAL ISSUES • Non human natural objects matter only in as much as they benefit or serve the interests o f human
• Conflict of Interest – it arises when the self-interest of an employee leads him/her to make decisions beings .
for his/her company in ways that may not be in the • Human interests: (1) economic, (2) aesthetic, (3) recreational, (4) scientific.
• Employee Theft – company properties that may be stolen by employers include supplies, money, • Our responsibilities to the natural world should be indirect; responsibilities we owe to humanity.
computer programs, and data or information. best interests of the whole company. • Moral status lies on one’s rationality.
• Whistleblowing – is the act of reporting a wrongdoing to an authority or exposing it to the public. • For most philosophers in the western tradition, only human beings have moral standing.
• On the morality of whistleblowing • TRADITIONAL ANTHROPOCENTRISM – only humans existing at present have moral status. Humans
• It violate one’s commitment to loyalty who are still to exist in the future do not belong to our moral community because they cannot give back
• It is an exercise of the right to free speech. what we will give them.
• The employee has the right to blow the whistle on corporate wrongdoing (report it to external • ANTHROPOCENTRIC EXTENSIONISM – not only humans existing at present, but those humans who
authorities) if the following conditions occur: will exist in the future have moral status.
• The wrongdoing will cause serious harm to individuals or society. ● NONANTHROPOCENTRIC VIEWS
• He/she has brought the wrongdoing to the attention of his/her immediate superiors. Sentientism
• No appropriate action has been taken. • SENTIENCE – capacity to be aware of feelings and sensations.
• The employee has the moral duty to blow the whistle if the following conditions would occur: • Animals can experience both pleasure and pain.
• He/she has possession of some documents proving practice of the corporate wrongdoing. • Peter Singer’s (1946-) Animal Liberation (1975) led to the prominence of sentiencecentered ethics.
• Public disclosure of the wrongdoing will affect the necessary action to prevent similar future • Speciesism – denying moral standing based on membership
wrongdoing. to a particular species.
• Sexual Harassment – when it comes in the form of unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual • All interests should receive equal consideration.
favors, and other verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature. • SENTIENCE – an essential criterion in moral standing.
• RA 7877 –Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 ● BIOCENTRISM
• Political Tactics –employees who engage in organizational politics to secure a comfortable or • A life-centered ethics; all life has intrinsic value whether it is a human, an animal, or a plant.
advantageous position in the workplace. • Being alive – a basis of membership in the moral community.
• Albert Schweitzer’s(1875-1965) reverence for life.
• All living things have an intrinsic value, a value that commands our awe and respect.
• It was Paul Taylor(1923-2015) who provided the most fully developed and philosophically
sophisticated contemporary defense of biocentric ethics.
• All living things have a good of their own.
• All living beings have an objective good because they are designed to move toward a distinct direction
or end.
• Teleological Center of Life – a basis of an entity’s moral standing.
● ECOCENTRISM
• It recognizes intrinsic value in ALL nature.
• An umbrella framework.
• Aldo Leopold and the LAND ETHIC.
• Land ethic - a paradigm shif t in how we value land. We cannot anymore treat the land as a mere
object that exists to serve our needs and desires.
• Land is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals.
• The focus of our moral consideration should be the COLLECTIVITY or community of living things.
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Issues in Environmental Ethics
• A systematic account of moral relations between human beings and their natural environment. a. SUSTAINABILITY
• Moral standards in dealing with the natural world. • Whose needs ought to matter in our management and utilization o f the natural resources .
• A bedrock for the formulation of social and economic policies that can impact on people’s actions, • Sustainable development
decisions, and ways of life. • Reconciling economic growth and environmental preservation .
• It also concerns the nonhuman world. • The environmental landscape
• It considers the interests of animals, plants, and other nonhuman living things. • RIGHTS OF FUTURE GENERATIONS
• It was during the 1970s that environmental ethics came about as an academic field. ● Do we have moral obligations to people who are yet to exist?
● Do future generations have moral standing?
• Presentism – the present generation do not have a moral obligation to the future generations. Policy
decisions should be based strictly on the current generation’s interest. (Argument from Ignorance)
• POPULATION AND CONSUMPTION – the exponential growth of the human population results in the
rapid depletion of natural resources leading to environmental problems.
• It is an important component of humans’ overall environmental impact.
• AFFLUENCE – the greater each person’s consumption, the greater each person’s impact on the
environment.
• TECHNOLOGY – if mismanaged, it can contribute to environmental destruction.
• The BRUNDTLAND COMMISSION – in a book Our Common Future (1987), it discusses sustainable
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations.
b. NONHUMAN INTEREST
• What kind of beings have moral value?
• How should we treat those living things that are nonhuman?
• How do we resolve conflicts that arise between human interests and those of other living things?
• ANIMAL RIGHTS – Do animals deserve moral consideration?
• Animal Welfare – the argument on sentience. It is morally wrong to eat sentient animals; medical
experiments on sentient animals are morally wrong.
• Animal Rights – the general view that animals have moral status and ought to be treated as such.
• A specific way of defending the view that animals have moral status.
MORAL STANDING OF LIVING BEINGS
• On Biocentrism – Paul Taylor developed four general rules that follow from the attitude of respect for
nature:
• Nonmaleficence – the duty to not harm living beings.
• Noninterference – duty not to interfere w/ the freedom of individual organisms.
• Fidelity – we should not deceive or betray animals.
• Restitutive Justice – making amends for violations of other duties.
PRINCIPLES OF PRIORITY IN HUMAN INTERESTS:
1. Self-defense 3. Minimum wrong 5. Restitutive Justice
2. Proportionality 4. Distributive Justice
• LEGAL RIGHTS OF NATURAL OBJECTS
• Christopher Stone’s Should Trees Have Moral Standing (1974).

c. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
• Issues on inequitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens.
• POLLUTION AND TOXIC WASTES
• The right of everyone to live in a clean and safe environment free from industrial waste and pollution
that can be detrimental to their well-being.
• Environmental Racism
• Disposal of global waste into developing countries.
• Basel Convention of 1989
• ECOFEMINISM
• The role o f women in the protection and preservation o f the environment.
• There are impor tant connections between the domination o f women and the natural world.
• Parallelisms between the exploitation o f women and degradation o f nature.