Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics, is "human responsibility to nature and the remote future." The key concept in this definition is responsibility, which entails: (a) knowledge of the consequences of an act or policy, (b) capacity to carry out that act or policy, (c) freedom to do otherwise, and (d) a value significance of those consequences -- as these consequences affect the welfare or worth of morally significant beings (persons, animals, natural objects, etc.). Environmental ethics is a new field of moral philosophy, primarily because of the recent emergence of knowledge (in science) and capacity (in technology) regarding humanity's impacts upon nature and the future.

• To become acquainted with concepts and methods of philosophical ethics that apply to issues regarding mankind's dealings with the natural world.
• To critically assess alternative approaches to, and defenses of, a code of responsibility to nature (i.e., an "environmental ethic").
• To gain a clear understanding of the obstacles in moral philosophy, public policy-making and public attitudes to a coherent and sound system of environmental ethics.
• To offer the student a repertory of resources and skills with which to formulate his/her own environmental ethic and to articulate and defend these ideas with clarity, consistency and coherence.