Environmental ethics

The environmental ethics is the ethical part of discipline that deals with the normative and morally correct verantwortbaren dealing with the external, non-human nature is concerned. Within environmental ethics, a distinction can be made between the philosophical- ethical and the political-legal level as well as practical individual case work. The intellectual debate on a philosophical-ethical level leads to different nature conservation reasons, which indicate the values ​​on which human action should be based on nature.

Environmental ethics is a relatively new area of ​​applied ethics. Therefore, some terms are still used differently. Often, for example, environmental ethics is also referred to as ecological ethics or erroneously as environmental philosophy. Important areas of environmental ethics are

• the animal ethics , dealing with the moral verantwortbaren handling of animals is concerned;
• the ethics of nature , which concerns the handling of biological units such as populations , species , biotopes , ecosystems or landscapes ;
• the environmental ethics in the strict sense , which deals with the use of natural resources and environmental media (eg, water, soil, climate, genetic diversity).

Different positions

A central question of environmental ethics is which natural beings or things should be given absolute self or intrinsic worth, which natural entities - as well as human persons - are subject to a moral obligation for their own sake (inclusion problem). There are different positions for this. Basically, a distinction can be made between anthropocentrism , theocentrism and physiocentrism . In anthropocentrism, moral obligations exist only to people; Nature is only worth protecting if it is in the instrumental or non-instrumental (aesthetic, symbolic, identity-creating etc.) interest of people. In theocentrism, nature is not worthy of protection for its own sake, but because it is the place of residence, creation etc. of a divine being. In physiocentrism, moral self-worth is also ascribed to natural entities. While so-called pathocentrism (only) ascribes moral self-worth to all pain-sensitive beings, biocentrism and ecocentrism or holism go beyond that. In biocentrism all living beings are viewed as morally valuable, in holism even non-individual beings of nature (e.g. species, ecosystems or the biosphere as a whole). Anthropocentric positions take into account the morally relevant interests of people, which may also include future generations. An important anthropocentric position is natural aesthetics, which attaches great importance to human interest in the aesthetic value of nature.

Biotic ethics is a branch of ethics that values ​​not only species and biosphere, but also life itself. On this basis, biotic defines ethics as a human purpose to secure and spread life. The panbiotic ethics extends these principles to space and tries to secure and expand life in the galaxy, for example through directed panspermia .

Criticisms

None of the conclusions of nature conservation justifications are compelling as they are only obvious to their alternatives. These nature conservation justifications are insufficient to solve the ecological problems, and no direct nature conservation goals can be derived from them. In practice, however, they offer citizens the necessary justifications and insights that can be discussed and implemented on the political-legal and casuistic level of the individual case. However, environmental ethics does not replace any social and active movements and without them would amount to an isolated special discourse.

Although environmental ethics cannot provide ultimate proof of the intrinsic value of nature, it offers a whole range of different arguments that speak in favor of treating nature and the environment with care ( see also: argument of the last person ). Last but not least, there are duties towards future generations and natural aesthetic arguments . It differs from environmental philosophy in that it only provides explanatory models, but no guidelines for action.

literature

• Dieter Birnbacher (Ed.): Ecology and Ethics Bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart: Reclam 2001, ISBN 3-15-009983-8 .
• Andreas Brenner: Environmental Ethics. A text and reading book , Friborg: Paulus 2008, ISBN 978-3-7278-1631-4 .
• Forum of Austrian Scientists for Environmental Protection (Ed.): Environmental ethics. Contributions to the foundation of sustainable values . Vienna 1994.
• Martin Gorke : Preservation of biodiversity from the standpoint of a holistic ethics , In: Nature conservation and biological diversity , Bonn - Bad Godesberg: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation 2007, pp. 125-144, ISBN 978-3-7843-3948-1 .
• Martin Gorke : Species extinction - From the ecological theory to the intrinsic value of nature . Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 1999, ISBN 978-3-608-91985-1
• Guido Hangartner: Forest ethics - Theological-ethical considerations on forests and forestry - A scientific work in the field of environmental and social ethics , Munich: Herbert Utz 2002, ISBN 3-8316-0207-7 .
• Vittorio Hösle : Philosophy of the ecological crisis , Munich: Beck 1991, ISBN 3-406-38368-8 .
• Hans Jonas : The principle of responsibility . Attempt of ethics for technological civilization , Frankfurt a. M .: Suhrkamp 1979.
• Angelika Krebs (Ed.): Naturethik. Basic texts of the current animal and eco-ethical discussion , Frankfurt a. M .: Suhrkamp 1997, ISBN 3-518-28862-8 .
• Kirsten Meyer: The value of nature. Diversity of justifications in nature conservation , Paderborn: mentis 2003.
• Konrad Ott : Environmental Ethics for Introduction , 2nd Edition, Hamburg: Junius 2014, ISBN 978-3-88506-677-4 .
• Konrad Ott : Umweltethik , in: Kirchhoff, Thomas (ed.): Online Encyclopedia Philosophy of Nature / Online-Lexikon Naturphilosophie , Heidelberg University Library: Heidelberg 2020, ISSN 2629-8821, https://doi.org/10.11588/oepn.2020.0 .68742 .
• Konrad Ott , Martin Gorke (eds.): Spectrum of environmental ethics , Hamburg: Metropolis 2000, ISBN 3-89518-289-3 .
• Dietmar von der Pfordten : Ecological ethics. To justify human behavior towards nature , Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1996, ISBN 3-499-55567-0 .
• Gerhard Pretzmann (Ed.): Environmental ethics. Manifesto of a responsible approach to nature , Graz: Stocker 2001.
• Peter Singer : Practical Ethics , Stuttgart: Reclam 1994, ISBN 3-15-008033-9 .
• Patrick Spät : On the dignity of the living , in: Post-Physikalismus , ed. by Marcus Knaup, Tobias Müller and Patrick Spät, Freiburg i.Br .: Karl Alber 2011, pp. 352–378, ISBN 978-3-495-48464-7 .
• Werner Theobald: Environmental ethics and the reality of environmental action using the example of climate protection . In: Environmental Sciences and Pollutant Research - Journal for Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology 16 (4), pp. 219–222 (2004), ISSN  0934-3504 .

See also

• Technology assessment
• environmental Protection
• Animal welfare

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ott, Konrad: Environmental ethics . In: Kirchhoff, Thomas (ed.): Online Encyclopedia Philosophy of Nature / Online-Lexikon Naturphilosophie . Heidelberg University Library, Heidelberg 2020, https://doi.org/10.11588/oepn.2020.0.68742 .
2. ↑ Martin Gorke : "Preservation of biodiversity from the standpoint of a holistic ethics", In: Nature protection and biological diversity , Bonn - Bad Godesberg: Federal Agency for Nature Protection 2007, p. 127, ISBN 978-3-7843-3948-1 .
3. ^ Matt Williams: Seeding the Milky Way with life using 'Genesis missions'. In: phys.org. January 21, 2019, accessed June 13, 2020 . 

Web links

• Literature by and about environmental ethics in the catalog of the German National Library
• Andrew Brennan and Yeuk-Sze Lo:  Entry in Edward N. Zalta (Eds.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Alasdair Cochrane:  Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Collection of links ( memento from April 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on environmental ethics of the International Center for Ethics in Science (IZEW), University of Tübingen
• www.umweltethik.at Collection of articles on environmental ethics
• Eckart Löhr: Emancipation and Alienation With us, freedom has come to be itself. It is our duty to bridge the gap between ourselves and the world.