This is Environmental Ethics: An Introduction

WENDY LYNNE LEE is a Professor of Philosophy at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught for 30 years. She is the author of more than 45 scholarly essays in areas such as philosophy of mind, feminist theory, non-human animal welfare, ecological aesthetics, and philosophy of ecology. She has contributed to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy and Oxford Bibliography and authored several books, including Eco-Nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse.

• Acknowledgments xAbout the Companion Website xiiIntroduction: Environmental Ethics in the Era of Ecological Crisis 1One Planet, Many Worlds 1The Time Is Now 4Environmental Ethics Is about the Present and the Future 7The Climate Crisis Is the Greatest Moral Challenge Humanity Has Ever Faced 10We Can Change 14Seven Basic Premises 17Seven Key Objectives 20Summary and Questions 22Annotated Bibliography 24Online Resources 251 Moral Principles and the Life Worth Living 301.1 Philosophy and the Environment 301.1.1 Philosophy and the Life Worth Living 301.1.2 The Precautionary Principle 351.2 Human Chauvinism versus Responsible Human-Centeredness 371.2.1 Human-Centeredness: Taking Responsibility 371.2.2 The Desirable Future 381.3 An Aerial View of Moral Extensionism 401.3.1 Is Moral Extensionism a Good Idea? 401.3.2 The Problem of Sentience 421.3.3 What Counts as a Living Thing? 441.3.4 Summary and Questions 49Annotated Bibliography 50Online Resources 542 Two Examples of Moral Extensionism: Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and Their Critics 582.1 The Capacity to Suffer: The Utilitarian Extensionism of Peter Singer 582.1.1 What Is Moral Extensionism? 582.1.2 Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation and the Principle of Equality 612.1.3 Weighing Interests and Predicting Consequences 642.1.4 Moral Extensionism and the Climate Crisis 672.1.5 How Do I Know a Thing Can Suffer? 682.2 “Subject-of-a-life”: The Kantian Extensionism of Tom Regan 722.2.1 The Case for Animal Rights and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative 722.2.2 A Subject-of-a-life 742.2.3 Whose Subject-of-a-life Matters? 822.2.4 Subjecthood, Intellectual Wherewithal— and Zombies 852.2.5 A Feminist Critique of the Subject-of-a-life Criterion for Moral Considerability 862.2.6 Summary and Questions 89Annotated Bibliography 92Online Resources 953 Two More Examples of Moral Extensionism: Christopher Stone, Holmes Rolston III, and Their Critics 993.1 The Rights of Trees: The “Moral Standing” Extensionism of Christopher Stone 993.1.1 Moral Extensionism, the Concept of “Wilderness,” and Human Chauvinism 993.1.2 Do Trees Have Rights? The Portability of Moral Standing 1063.1.3 Moral Standing versus Consequences/Rights versus Goals: What Matters More? 1113.1.4 Moral Standing and the Concept of the Future 1143.1.5 The Interests and Rights of the Voiceless 1193.2 Respect for Life: The “Good of Its Own” Extensionism of Holmes Rolston III 1233.2.1 Respect for Life and an “Ethic for Species” 1233.2.2 Valuing the Threat of Extinction over the Capacity for Suffering 1263.2.3 Is a “Species Line” a Living System? 1313.3 Summary and Questions 133Annotated Bibliography 136Online Resources 1384 Two Examples of an Ecocentric Ethic: Aldo Leopold, Arne Naess, and Their Critics 1434.1 Human-Centeredness, Human Chauvinism, and Ecocentrism 1434.1.1 Ecocentrism and the Limits of Moral Extensionism 1434.1.2 Ecocentrism as Psychic Transformation and Moral Paradigm Shift 1474.2 Aldo Leopold, Ecological Conscience, and the “Plain Citizen” 1524.2.1 The Role of Language in Ecocentric Thinking 1524.2.2 Scientific Knowledge and the Ecocentric Disposition 1564.2.3 Thinking Like a Mountain, or Not 1604.2.4 Ecocentrism, the Principle of Utility, and the Patriarchal Social Order 1644.3 Arne Naess: Deep Ecology and the Eight-point Platform 1684.3.1 The Eight-point Platform 1684.3.2 The Ecocentric Dichotomy 1764.4 The Authoritarian Politics of the Eight-point Platform 1824.4.1 Ecocentric Tyranny and Human Population Control 1824.4.2 Does Environmental Crisis Justify Ecocentric Policies or Laws? 1854.4.3 Summary and Questions 190Annotated Bibliography 194Online Resources 1985 From the Ecocentric Endgame to Eco-phenomenology2025.1 The Radicalized Ecocentrism of Derrick Jensen 2025.1.1 Blow up the Dams 2025.1.2 The Environmentalism of the Civilized 2075.1.3 The Ethics of Human Population, of Life and Death 2125.2 Worth: A Value Intrinsic to Living Things or a Weapon of Consent? 2185.2.1 “We Are at War.” 2185.2.2 After the End 2265.3 Why Experience Matters: John Dewey, David Wood, and Kath Weston 2295.3.1 What Is Eco-phenomenology? 2295.3.2 John Dewey and the Aesthetic in Experience 2335.3.3 David Wood’s Eco-phenomenology 2385.3.4 Kath Weston: The Feel of Experience versus the Force of Principle 2445.3.5 Animate Planet and the Menace of Moral Relativism 2465.4 Eco-phenomenology and the Problem of Pseudoscience: Why Ethics Must Be Rooted in Knowledge 2525.5 Summary and Questions 256Annotated Bibliography 260Online Resources 2636 Environmental Justice: Ecological Feminism, Social Justice, and Animal Rights 2686.1 Climate Change and Environmental Justice 2686.2 Ecological Feminism: Intersectional Analysis and Environmental Justice 2716.2.1 Environmental Crisis and Structural Inequality 2716.2.2 Threads of Moral Extensionism and of Ecocentrism 2746.3 Groundbreaking Frameworks: Karen Warren and Carol Adams 2756.3.1 Laying Bare the Logic of Domination 2756.3.2 The Naturalized Fictions that Imperil Us 2796.4 The Logic of Domination, Nostalgia, Resentment, and Privilege: Jordan Peterson 2806.4.1 Antithesis of “The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” 2806.4.2 Sophism in Defense of Climate Change “Skepticism” 2836.4.3 12 Rules for Life: Human Chauvinism, Speciesism, and Heteropatriarchy 2856.5 Inseparable: Environmental Ethics and the Quest for Social and Economic Justice 2886.5.1 The Deep Roots of the “Dominance Hierarchy” 2886.5.2 Environmental Ethics and the Quest to De-naturalize the Logic of Domination 2906.6 Human-Centeredness, the Aesthetic in Experience, and the Desirable Future 2946.6.1 The Aesthetic Value of Natural Objects as a Vital Element of an Ecofeminist Ethic 2946.6.2 The Standpoint of the Subjugated 2996.6.3 We Must Do Better 3026.7 Summary and Questions 302Annotated Bibliography 306Online Resources 310Index 317