Scribd
Upload
47 views12 pages

Ethics of Environment: Introduction and Kantain Approach

Kant believed that only rational human beings have intrinsic moral worth and that we have no direct duties to animals or nature. For Kant, nature and animals only have instrumental value in serving human needs and interests. While Kant urges kindness to animals to cultivate human morality, animals themselves make no moral claims on us. Kant viewed humans as the center of value in the world, with non-rational nature and animals existing merely as resources for human use.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Mohsin Javed
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
47 views12 pages

Ethics of Environment: Introduction and Kantain Approach

Kant believed that only rational human beings have intrinsic moral worth and that we have no direct duties to animals or nature. For Kant, nature and animals only have instrumental value in serving human needs and interests. While Kant urges kindness to animals to cultivate human morality, animals themselves make no moral claims on us. Kant viewed humans as the center of value in the world, with non-rational nature and animals existing merely as resources for human use.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Mohsin Javed
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 12

Ethics of Environment

Introduction and Kantain Approach

Muhammad Mohsin Javed


9408
Introduction
 Environmental ethics is the discipline in philosophy that
studies the moral relationship of human beings to the
environment and its nonhuman contents.
 
 Although nature was the focus of much nineteenth and
twentieth century philosophy, contemporary environmental
ethics only emerged as an academic discipline in the 1970s.
 Human Beings are cutting down forests for making homes.

 Continuing with an excessive consumption of natural resources


and their excessive use is resulting in their depletion.

When industrial processes lead to destruction of resources, is it


not the industry's responsibility to restore the depleted
resources?

Moreover, can a restored environment make up for the originally natural


one?

 Mining processes hamper the environment of certain areas;


they may result in the disruption of plant and animal life in
those areas.
Most of the Human Activities lead to
Environmental Pollution
ACTIVITIES SUCH AS:

 Air pollution, the release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere.

 Littering

 Noise pollution, which encompasses roadway noise, aircraft noise, industrial


noise as well as high-intensity sonar.

 Radioactive contamination such as nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons


research, manufacture and deployment

 Water pollution, by the discharge of wastewater from commercial and industrial


waste discharge of untreated domestic sewage.
Environmental Ethics
Aristotle (Politics, Bk. 1, Ch. 8) says that :

“Nature has made all things specifically for the


sake of man and that the value of nonhuman
things in nature is merely instrumental”
KANTIAN APPROACH
Immanuel Kant wrote:

“So far as animals are concerned we have no


direct moral duties to them. Animals are not
self-conscious and are there merely as a means
to an end. That end is man.”
KANTIAN APPROACH
Nature's only value is determined on the basis of
its capacity to serve human interests and needs,
and Kant goes so far as to tell us that in the
absence of human interests, the natural world
would be nothing but a "mere wasteland,
gratuitous and without a final purpose." 
KANTIAN APPROACH
 He urges us to refrain from cruelty against
animals not because we are bound by any
direct duties to them, but because we have
duties toward other rational beings.

 Animals themselves, as they are irrational,


make no moral claims upon us.
KANTIAN APPROACH
 Kant is an ego-centrist (i.e.,
having or regarding the self or the individual as the center of all things)
who believes only humans have value and moral
duties because they are the only rational creatures.

 Kant, believes that only rational creatures have


moral duties.

 Kant does not believe that humans have duties to


nature.
KANTIAN APPROACH
 Kant does not think that human beings have any
duty to animals or nature.

“Kant sees humans as having a duty with regards


to animals and nature”

 Having a duty with regard to an object means that


the object is not owed anything but that the person is
helping himself by taking care of the object.
KANTIAN APPROACH
 In Kant's view, even though nature only has derived value,
human moral duty is affected in that humans have to take
care of nature because it will still affect humans.

 If a species of animal goes extinct because of humans,


humans no longer can use the animals for food, study the
animals, or use them for anything.

 Outside of the animals being useful to humans their


extinction is not necessarily morally wrong.
Kant tells us that:

When the human being first said to the sheep,

“the pelt which you wear was given to you by nature


not for your own use, but for mine”

He took it from the sheep to wear it himself, he


became aware of a exclusive right which, by his
nature, he enjoyed over all the animals; and he now
regarded as means and instruments to be used at will
for the attainment of whatever ends he pleased.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy