Philosophy Discussion 2 21 We must have a normative ethical theory in order to apply different types of reasoning and actions Deontology Kant duty 1st 2nd categorical imperatives 1 Universalizability if everyone can t achieve a maxim don t do it 2 Formula for humanity don t treat people as mere means for your end Rawls contract theory Original position hypothetical experiment people act in self interest to be able to obtain principles of justice for all Veil of ignorance Principles of justice Maximin reasoning If I don t know what my social status is I want to be able to consent to the worst possible scenario What sort of universal principles would a rational agent agree to Consequentialism Mill Utilitarianism maximize overall happiness for everybody cost benefit analysis Virtue Ethics Shift from act or maxim to the character of the agent Who is the kind of person who would chop down all those trees Hill s failures Intrinsic goodness 1 Plants rights 2 God s will 3 Value Instrumental consequentialism value for human non human animals Intrinsic virtue ethics value for own sake G E Moore Moral realism metaphysical claim about whether goodness exists Ecofeminism Women are more affected by environmental destruction Intergenerational domination of humans over natural environment Intersectionality Oppressions are understood as overlapping and informing one another account for a variety of justice issues social injustice environmental destructio 2 25 Philosophy Test will include all readings including those of this week How can we affect harm benefit future generations Effects of climate change will intensify in the future Top soil loss technology oxygen depletion water depletion architecture nuclear war Kavka s View If we have duties to currently existing strangers then we have good reason to think that we have duties to people who don t exist yet However these duties will be fairly general Are we obligated to future generations 4 problems 1 Friends and Strangers Problem If we have duties to currently existing strangers then we have good reason to think that we have duties to people who don t exist yet However these duties will be fairly general The Futurity Problem 3 parts 2 Temporal Location Problem 3 Ignorance Problem 4 Contingency Problem 1 Temporal Location Problem Future people do not yet exist We have no obligations to anything that doesn t yet exist Therefore we have no obligations to future people Kavka s Response Where you are doesn t preclude obligations why should when you are Concern with temporal location is purely prejudicial 2 Ignorance Problem We can have obligations to being only if we can know what those beings are like what they need or desire and what our impacts on them are We cant know what future people can can know what those beings are like what they needs or desire or how we impact them Therefore we have no obligations to future people Kavka s Response We must act on the best available information Future People will have the same biological and economic needs We should focus on the survival sciences 2 Contingency Problem Two Forms Disappearing Beneficiaries Depending on what we do different people will exist Disappearing Generations Depending on what we do no future people will exist Kavka s Response 1 Whoever they are they will want a clean environment 2 We should want future generations to exist Thought Experiment Suppose that astronomers were to determine to the degree of virual certainty that in two hundred years the sun would become a nova and extinguish all life and traces of human culture from the face of the earth Partridge Can we care about the future Ought implies can Widely but not universally accepted constraint on obligation The action to which the ought applies must indeed be possible under natural conditions Kant Moral Principles are subject to the strains of commitment Rawls Partridge there is a strong case empirical psychosocial and moral that we can care about the future In fact we need the future now Self Transcendence A well functioning human being identifies with and promotes locations causes artifacts institutions ideals etc that are outside him herself and that they hope will flourish beyond their lifetimes The self not atomic but relational Law of Import Transference if a person P feels that X matters to hum P will also feel that X matters OBJECTIVELY and INSTRINSICALLY Significance and mortality we desire to extend our influence beyond our lives Two failures of Self Transcendence Alienation The Self Alone Narcissism The Self Contained One lives for the best of oneself when one lives for the sake of others Self transcendence is recommended on grounds of prudence Dylan Miller Environmental Ethics 3 11 Garrett Hardin 1915 2003 Controversial figure Concerned with overpopulation Pro abortion Prop population control by government Pro assisted suicide Anti immigration Anti international aid Overpopulation and competition for resources is this kind of problem Often treated as a technical problem More food increased efficiency is not the answer Require political solution Some problems cannot be solved with science Malthus Population Growth Population grows exponentially food supply can only increase arithmetically so eventually we will even off Starvation wars disease Common land available to all Tragedy of the commons Each person makes decisions based on immediate self interest Commons cannot sustain ever increasing desires Commons always produce tragedy overall depletion of the shared resource Note Hardin defines a commons as an uncontrolled free for all Modern commons include Fisheries National Parks Negative commons rivers pollution Public noise level sound pollution Earth itself energy food supply living standards overpopulation Should we have freedom to breed Freedom to breed is intolerable Each child is a net good to parts and a net bad to society New Developments in World Population 100 countries now have a fertility rate below replacement level without coercion including the UK France Italy Germany Vietnam Brazil Cuba Kazakhstan Brunel Russia Japan China Thailand and Macao Hong Kong is the lowest at 98 children per woman China s one child policy example of coercion The most rapidly growing populations on earth today are in general the most miserable population Hardin appeals to individual conscience are bad because 1 Discriminates against people of good conscience eliminates them from the 2 It wont work in the long run Natures