1st Edition

Consequentialism and Environmental Ethics

Edited By Avram Hiller, Ramona Ilea, Leonard Kahn Copyright 2014
    212 Pages
    by Routledge

    212 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume works to connect issues in environmental ethics with the best work in contemporary normative theory. Environmental issues challenge contemporary ethical theorists to account for topics that traditional ethical theories do not address to any significant extent. This book articulates and evaluates consequentialist responses to that challenge. Contributors provide a thorough and well-rounded analysis of the benefits and limitations of the consequentialist perspective in addressing environmental issues. In particular, the contributors use consequentialist theory to address central questions in environmental ethics, such as questions about what kinds of things have value; about decision-making in light of the long-term, intergenerational nature of environmental issues; and about the role that a state’s being natural should play in ethical deliberation.

    Introduction: Consequentialism and Environmental Ethics Avram Hiller and Leonard Kahn  Part I: Environmental Value and Its Structure  1. The Bearers of Value in Environmental Ethics Katie McShane  2. Can Biocentric Consequentialism Meet Pluralist Challenges? Robin Attfield  3. System Consequentialism Avram Hiller  4. Indirect, Multidimensional Consequentialism Alan Carter  5. Why Leave Nature Alone? Ben Bradley  Part II: Consequentialism and Environmental Decision-making 6. On Some Limitations of Consequentialism in the Sphere of Environmental Ethics Alan Holland  7. Evaluative Uncertainty, Environmental Ethics, and Consequentialism Krister Bykvist  8. Future Generations and Resource Shares Allen Habib  9. Can We Remediate Wrongs? Benjamin Hale  10. Moral Bookkeeping, Consequentialism, and Carbon Offsets Julia Driver  11. John Stuart Mill's Green Liberalism and Ecofeminism Wendy Donner

    Biography

    Avram Hiller is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Portland State University, USA

    Ramona Ilea is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pacific University, USA

    Leonard Kahn is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University, New Orleans, USA

    "...this volume…contains several thought-provoking ideas that deserve to be seriously considered by scholars interested in environmental ethics. The level of argumentation is high, and the authors mean exactly what they write." -- Martin Peterson, Eindhoven University of Technology in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

    "This collection has a number of strengths. Many contributors focus on ethical theory and consequentialism generally, rather than environmental ethics; thus this book reflects greater attention to broader theoretical issues than some similar anthologies do. Additionally, since much of the work in environmental ethics does not come from a consequentialist perspective, this volume provides a distinct way of thinking about and responding to various issues in that field. Given the relative scarcity of works that address these issues from a consequentialist perspective, and given the high quality of the papers throughout, this book will be a valuable acquisition for academic libraries. Summing Up: Highly recommended." -- M A. Michael, Austin Peay State University, in CHOICE