THEORY
toreduce the pressure on the natural environment? Is it wrong to eat
meat? Environmental ethics, by examining questions about how humans
ought to think about and act towards nature, provides a link between
theory and practice. It is primarily concerned with values. Does nature
have value separate from its role in meeting human needs? If so, why?
Which parts of nature possess value and are some parts more valuable than
others?Deep ecology:The pre-eminent radical
ecocentric moral theory, which has the
primary aim of preserving nature from
human interference.There is a strong normative element to environ-
mental philosophy. Many leading contributors are
also committed activists whose main objective is to
develop a robust environmental ethical theory to
underpin green activism. Radical perspectives such
asdeep ecologyquestion the existence of a clear divide between humans
and nature and may even push humans off their pedestal at the top of
theethical hierarchy. If ecologism is a separate ideology, then the way the
human–nature relationship is conceptualised arguably provides its most dis-
tinctive and radical feature.
This chapter provides an introduction to the key debates in environmen-
tal philosophy. It considers whether an environmental ethic that attributes
value and moral significance to nature is defensible, and whether it is
anecessary component of a green political theory. The opening sections
stake out the territory covered by environmental philosophy by distin-
guishing three different types of value, explaining theanthropocentric–
Anthropocentrism:Away of thinking that
regards humans as the source of all value
and is predominantly concerned with human
interests.
Ecocentrism:Amode of thought that
regards humans as subject to ecological
and systems laws and whose ethical,
political and social prescriptions are
concerned with both humans and
non-humans.
Moral extensionism:Ethical approaches
which broaden the ‘moral community’ to
include non-human entities such as animals,
based on the possession of some critical
property such as sentience.ecocentricdichotomy and setting out a simple
typology categorising the main approaches within
environmental philosophy. The core of the chap-
terconsists of a critical analysis of environmen-
tal theories of value under the two broad cat-
egories of holism andmoral extensionism. The
final section suggests that the search for a pure
non-anthropocentric perspective may be fruitless.
Ecologism is, and perhaps should be,informed
byawide range of value theories–aformof
value eclecticism – each of which can contribute
constructively to the development of an ethical
framework to guide human behaviour towards the
environment.◗ Staking out the territory
◗ Types of value
Akeyconcept in environmental philosophy isvalue.Unfortunately, not only
are there several differentkindsof value, but there is also little consistency