Ethical and Philosophical Perspectives and their Relevance to Sustainability. February 2012. Ryerson University, Toronto.

1. Ethical and Philosophical
Perspectives and their
Relevance to Sustainability
Fundamentals in Sustainability
Alexander Belyakov
Email: alexbelyakov@gmail.com
21. February 2012

2. Outline
1. Ethics and values
2. Mid-, light- and dark- green ethics
3. Sustainability-related ethics in cases
4. Ethics of indigenous people
5. Question to discuss

3. Ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that
tries to define what is
fundamentally right and wrong,
regardless of cultural differences.
Morals differ somewhat from ethics
in that they reflect the
predominant attitudes and feeling
of a culture about ethical issues.
Questions
• (1) What are the components of a
good life?
• (2) What sort of things are good in
themselves?

4. Values
Intrinsic value vs. instrumental value:
• intrinsic value: The worth objects
have in their own right, independent
of their value to any other end.
• instrumental value: The worth objects
have in fulfilling other ends.

5. Philosophical Issue
• Who or what has moral
standing (is morally
considerable), and why?
– Does the environment
have moral standing?
– Is value of nature
instrumental or
intrinsic?
• What moral duty do we
have toward those with
moral standing?
– Different ethical
positions suggest
different moral duties.

6. Ethical Positions
Anthropocentrism: Human
centered morality
– Only humans have intrinsic
value and moral standing.
– The rest of the natural world
has instrumental value (use to
humans).
Ex: Ducks Unlimited preserves
wetlands for hunting
Ex: Saving the rainforests will
provide O2 and medicines for
humans.
Problem: Would you blow up the
world if you were the last human

7. Impact of dominant anthropocentric
approach on politics
• Recourcism – nature is considered as recourse
• Managerial environmentalism – recourses
require management
This serves as a foundation for modern
environmental policy

8. Ethical Positions
• Eco-centric Holism:
ecosystem centered morality
• Non-individuals (the earth as an
interconnected ecosystem,
species, natural processes) have
moral standing or intrinsic value
and are deserving of respect.
• Individuals must be concerned
about the whole community of
life/nature.
• Humans should strive to preserve
ecological balance and stability.

9. Evolution of
Ethics:
Expansion of
subjects
having rights

10. Evolution of
Ethics:
Expansion of
subjects
having moral
standing

11. Ecological ethics
Ecological (environmental ) ethics = application
of ethical standards to relationships between
human and non-human entities
Should we conserve Is is OK to destroy a forest to
resources for future create jobs for people?
generations?
Should humans drive Is it OK for some communities
other species to to be exposed to excess
extinction? pollution?

12. Three mainstreams in ecological ethics
Anthropocentric Ecocentric view
view

13. Western ethical expansion

14. Light Green or Shallow Ethics
Consideration of only humans as having
intrinsic value. Nonhuman beings are
considered only in their usefulness for
human
EXAMPLES
Environmentalism Lifeboat Ethics

15. Environmentalism
• Rachel Carson as founder
Advocates the preservation,
restoration and/or improvement
of the natural environment, and
may be referred to as a
movement to control pollution
(precautionary principle)
• Patrick Moore: “Environmentalism
is to a large extent a populist
movement that challenges
established authority and appeals
to the disenchanted, social
revolutionaries, and idealists”.

16. Lifeboat Ethics
Garrett Hardin (70s):
Natural resources are limited
and can not support
humankind without
measures.
- We are in a lifeboat – wealthy
societies should pick up poor
nations in the sea
- Tragedy of the commons –
common goods are commonly
owned and with free riders
this may result in destruction

17. Mild-green or Intermediate Ethics
Consideration of some elements of
nature as having some intrinsic value
– but human interests have priority
EXAMPLES
Animal Animal Rights
Liberation Movement Biocentrism

18. Animal Liberation Approach
• Peter Singer (1977): calls to stop
suffering of animals
• Sentience, the ability to feel pain
– Therefore extend moral standing to
animals
Justifies vegetarian diet
BUT : How can you measure
pleasure/suffering

19. Animal Rights Approach
• Tom Regan (1983): Beings
"subjects-of-a-life“ animals have
right to life
• BUT boundary of moral
considerability is very restrictive
– and many plants and animals left out
– only if animals are like us in some
important way will we grant them
standing

20. Biocentrism
life centered ethics
Paul Taylor's Respect for Nature (1986)
– Living things have a good of their own,
a will to live, and end of their own.
Thus they have inherent worth
– With this perspective comes morally
responsible behavior toward nature.
Also:
• (1) humans are member of earth's life
community
• (2) all species part of interdependent
ecological system
• (3) all life pursues own good in own
ways
• (4) Humans not inherently superior (all
life has moral standing)

21. Other critical points of Mild-green
ethics
• How can we determine what the
"interests" of a living thing are?
• How should we decide who should be the
trustee for non-rational, morally considerable
entities?
• No basis for prioritizing
concern for endangered
species

22. Dark Green
or Deep (Ecocentric) Ethics
Considering intrinsic value of whole
ecosystems
EXAMPLES
Land Ethics Vernadsky Deep ecology
theory;
Gaia theory

23. Ecocentrism: ecosystem centered
ethics
Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic (1949)
"All
ethics rest upon a single
premise: that the individual is a
member of a community of
interdependent parts.”
– Leopold argued that Healthy
ecological systems depend on
protecting all parts

24. Lovelock’s holistic planetary
Gaia theory
• Arguing the earth is a self-regulating
living system that maintains the
conditions for the perpetuation of life,
James Lovelock advanced the Gaia
Hypothesis (1970s).
• Although not intended as an ‘ethics,’ a
biosphere-centered (large-ecocentric)
ethics has been deduced from it,
claiming:
– People ought not degrade this wonderful
system in such a way that it can not
function to keep its systems within the
various delicate margins necessary for life

25. Nöosphere by Vernadsky – before
and unnoticed by Lovelock
The "sphere of human thought".
Vernadsky’ book, The Biosphere,
first published in Moscow, in 1926,
translated into French in 1929.
The biosphere as a biogeochemical
evolving system.

26. Appealing to Moral Values –
Responsibility of humankind for the planet
• Mankind as a whole is becoming a mighty geological
force. → Problem of the reconstruction of the
biosphere in the interests of freely thinking humanity.
New state of the biosphere - nöosphere.
• The noösphere is a new geological phenomenon on
our planet, when a man becomes a large-scale
geological force. He can and must rebuild the province
of his life by his work and thought.
• Are our democratic ideals in tune with the elemental
geological processes, with the law of nature, and with
the noösphere?
Vladimir I. Vernadsky. The Biosphere and the Noösphere, article written in 1943, and published
in English in the American Scientist, January 1945.

27. Deep Ecology
• Humans are deeply connected
with nature.
• All life systems are sacred and
valuable -- apart from their
usefulness to human beings
• All species should be allowed to
flourish and fulfill their
evolutionary destinies
• If humans identify with nature,
then taking care of the natural
world will become part of taking
care of one's self.

28. Deep Ecology
The problem & solution
• Anthropocentrism destroy nature
• A transformation of consciousness is needed,
replacing anthropocentrism with a broader
sense of the self
– identity should be grounded to nature
• When we understand that we are part of
nature, eco-defense, as self-defense, will follow

29. Criticism of Dark Green ethics
• Individuals get hurt when you ignore
them in favor of wholes
• How do you translate deep ecology into
politics?

30. Case: Spiritual Evolution aka Dark Green
Modern spiritual schools consider
elements of nature as having soul and
mind.
Four elements: fire, earth, air, and water
Earth elementals - gnomes
Water elementals - undines /nymphs
Air elementals - sylphs
Fire elementals - salamanders
The network “Star of Transformation” lead
by Nadezda Domasheva and Vladimir
Samoylenko (Ukraine) : objective for
humankind is cooperation with those
elements and elementals for the sake of
joint spiritual evolution.
http://www.star-transform.org

31. Case: The Ethical Approach in Finance
Ethical Leadership at the organizational level for the
companies operating on the financial market
Light Green Ethical Funds
• Include: investments in animal testing, pesticides and
the fur trade
• Exclude: armaments, alcohol, tobacco, gambling,
pornography or nuclear energy.
Medium Green Ethical Funds
• stricter criteria than light green, but still some
companies with poor workplace relations, or
responsible for ozone depleting chemicals.
• Investments in smaller companies, mostly UK, Europe
and North America.

32. Case: The Ethical Approach in Finance
(cont.)
Dark Green Ethical Funds
• strict ethical criteria, only investing in companies
which actively seek to improve our environment
or benefit the community. Companies which
favour renewable energy resources and
sustainable development are preferred.
• Exclude: human rights violators: companies who
use child labour abroad or employ third parties
who do so, unequal opportunities; oil companies;
animal testing, large environmental impact,
intensive farming, genetic engineering, nuclear
power, timber and military involvement.
http://www.ethicalinvestment.co.uk/Dark_green_funds.htm

33. Ethics of indigenous people
“Most indigenous people did manage, on balance, to coexist
sustainable more successfully, and for great deal longer, than
moderns. And a key to their relative success has been an
Earth-oriented spirituality…” (Curry, 2011, p. 142-143)
From wisdom of Gayaneshakgowa, the Great Law of Peace of
the Hau de no sau nee, the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy:
"in our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our
decisions on the next seven generations."

34. Ethics of indigenous people (cont.)
Mi’kmaw Nation, northeastern New England,
Canada's Atlantic Provinces, and the Gaspé Peninsula

35. Question to discuss
Do you see any opportunity to introduce the
next seven generations principle into the
policy and daily life?

36. Sources
• Curry, Patrick. 2006. Ecological Ethics: An Introduction.
Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
• Schwartz, Geraldine and Berghofer, Desmond (2008). Ethical
Leadership: Right Relationships and the Emotional Bottom
Line – The Gold Standard for Success [online]. Available from:
http://www.ethicalleadership.com/BusinessArticle.htm
[Accessed: 21 February 2012].
• Bill Muehlenberg (2011). A Review of Confessions of a
Greenpeace Dropout. By Patrick Moore. [online]. Available
from:
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/02/19/a-review-of-confess
[Accessed: 21 February 2012].

37. Thank you for your attention