Environmental Ethics

Robin Attfield discusses the environmental problems that humanity is facing today, and the contribution that environmental ethics can make to ethical and sustainable management of our environment. He argues that the human community has to act now—in a range of more or less radical ways—to avert environmental catastrophe. His primary aim is to establish the conclusion that human beings have a direct moral obligation to care for the environment. He defends the claims that we are ‘stewards’ or ‘trustees’ of the earth—and that the idea of stewardship is compatible with a secular conception of morality (in particular with biocentric consequentialism and perhaps other views too) as well as with the three great world religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Attfield further aims to show that the same conclusion about a direct obligation to care for the earth can be supported by or at least can cohere with many other incompatible worldviews or philosophies (religious and secular). His philosophical project is important because the environmental crisis affects the whole earth and requires a response from the whole human community.

Consequentialism · Environmental crisis · Environmental ethics · Humanity · Islam · Judaism · Moral obligation · Morality · Obligation · Political science · Sociology · Stewardship (theology) · Theology · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics