Challenges to Traditional Morality
Feminism and morality: morality should not be about the (typically
male) conflict of rights or the institutionalization of abstract principles
of justice but about developing human relationships in actual situations.
The goal of ethics is not individual autonomy and liberty but caring for
specific persons in specific situations: a life of virtue (moderation
relative to the person concerned) rather than one of impartial justice.
Deep Ecology (Arne Naess): all life is valuable in itself,
not merely insofar as it can be used (instrumentally) by humans for our
own purposes. As parts of a larger whole whose richness and diversity
must be respected, we maximize our own self-realization by promoting the
welfare of the whole.We should therefore cut back on human population growth
and selfish consumption of natural resources.
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As the 17th-century thinker Baruch Spinoza argues, everything in
nature is part of God; indeed, nature is God. To accept the fact
that all things are one is to embrace or love God. When we no longer
see the world solely from our own perspective, we should accept everything
as valuable in itself--not as something we can exploit, for that would
be to claim (unjustifiably) that we are more important than anything else
in nature.
Conclusions: There is no such thing as the good as such.
A good life, however, would be one aimed at the pleasurable and virtuous
development of potentialities and acceptance of social responsibilities
and personal obligations. There are no ultimate foundations of morality,
but that fact should not prevent us from developing a map of moral strategies
by which to guide our lives.
Slides and Notes from Dr. Varner's Lecture
I. Ethics and Feminism
In feminist ethics, morality is not about abstract rules (e.g., utilitarian ethics), impersonal judgments about rights, or impartial theories of justice; nor is it about promoting respect or autonomy (Kantian ethics). Rather, it is about caring for actual persons in specific relationships and situations. Morality emphasizes the interdependence of people rather than their individuality.
Feminist ethics is like Aristotle's Virtue Ethics: morality requires sensitivity to the social and personal dimensions of life, moderation (acting according to the golden mean)
II. Environmental Ethics: Deep Ecology
Fundamental insights:
- All forms of life are equally valuable, including species and ecosystems
- Everything in nature is an expression of God
- We maximize our own self-realization by promoting the welfare of the whole
- The selfish human consumption of resources and destruction of natural diversity is immoral
A major task of environmental ethics is to determine which things have intrinsic rather than instrumental ethical value:
- Anthropocentrism = only human beings have intrinsic moral value
- Sentientism = all (and only) sentient entities have intrinsic moral value (the golden rule)
- Problem: which animals are sentient?
- Biocentric individualism = all (and only) living organisms have intrinsic moral value
- Holism = holistic entities like species and ecosystems have intrinsic moral value
- A) Pure holism = only species and ecosystems have intrinsic moral value
- B) Pluralistic holism = species and ecosystems have intrinsic moral value, but so do some or all of the things listed above
Objections:
- How would you show that non-conscious organisms, let alone species and ecosystems have intrinsic value?
- "Convergence hypothesis": If preserving nature is ultimately in humans' long-term best-interests, why not simply adopt anthropocentrism as the most inclusive view of intrinsic value?
- Is there a hierarchy of intrinsic value, and how would you defend one? In particular:
- If all organisms have intrinsic value, how do we justify eating, killing disease organisms, and even excreting?
- If species and ecosystems have intrinsic value, how do we decide conflicts between the interests of individuals and species/systems?
III. Eco-feminism = the view that oppression of women, animals, and nature in general all exist, and all have common roots in male-dominated thinking about ethics in terms of (a) man/nature and reason/feeling dichotomies, and (b) hierarchical orderings of value.