Environmental Ethics
Philosophical and Policy Perspectives

Hanson, Philip P.
Publisher:  SFU Publications, Vancouver, Canada
Year Published:  1986  
Pages:  199pp   ISBN:  0-80491-061-4
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX3298

Abstract:  "Environmental Ethics" are defined as "the theory concerning the moral rightness and wrongness of human actions insofar as they affect the natural environment." An argument made for the necessity for an environmental ethic states that "the great fault of all ethics hitherto is that they dealt only with the relationship of man to man. We now must codify an ethic that deals also with the relationships of mankind and the rest of the natural world." The book consists of several papers which are then followed by one or more commentaries on the points made in the paper. The first paper is "An Environmental Ethic__Its Formulation and Implications". This is followed by "Morality, Posterity, and Nature" and "Ethics as Prosthetics". "Honey Dribbles Down Your Fur" by Tom Regan criticizes as anthropocentric theories about moral ties that bind us to nature. Two of the responses to this point of view are titled "Against Sentimentalism" and "Against Animal Rights".