Why this book?
- For a systematic introduction to the most important questions and perspectives in environmental ethics.
- To examine the issue of animal rights and the criteria for the moral value of non-human beings.
- To understand the debate over the intrinsic value of nature and the shift from anthropocentrism to nature-centered approaches.
- To become acquainted with deep ecology, ecofeminism, and other significant approaches in environmental philosophy.
- To examine the relationship of environmental issues with economics, technology, and nuclear energy.
About the book
Environmental Ethics is a two-volume collection that brings together articles by various thinkers on the relationship between humans and nature and the moral responsibilities arising from this relationship. The central question of the collection is how far ethics extends: are only humans the subjects of moral consideration, or do animals, living beings, ecosystems, and nature itself also possess value independent of human interests?
The scope of the book's discussions is broad. "The Philosophy of Nature" and the historical roots of the environmental crisis are the starting points, followed by topics such as animal rights, the intrinsic value of nature, biocentric ethics, deep ecology, ecofeminism, and the Gaia hypothesis. The collection also examines non-Western perspectives on nature and, in its final chapters, addresses more practical issues like nuclear energy and the relationship between economics and the environment.
One of the book's features is its juxtaposition of different, and sometimes conflicting, positions. For example, in the discussion of animal rights, Kant's anthropocentric view is placed alongside theories that consider sentience as the basis for moral value; in the discussion of nature, the question of the instrumental or intrinsic value of nature expands into biocentric and ecological approaches.