Environmental+Ethics+-+Wiki+Glossary

=

 * Welcome to the course glossary page! Please keep in alphabetical order please. You need to add two NEW entries OR... you may ADD to a key term if you think the stated definition can be made clearer and more informative. Entries with (2009) are entries posted in last year's class. PLEASE INSERT YOUR LAST NAME IN PARENTHESES AFTER YOUR ENTRY - WHETHER YOUR ENTRY IS A NEW ENTRY OR AN ADDITION TO AN EXISTING ENTRY. For example, (Anelli) - see below.**=====

__ **Altruism** __ **-** Unselfish concern for the welfare of others. (2009)

__**Animal Liberation Ethic**__ - Unless there is a serious need affecting an entire natural community, individual animals, or species of animals cannot be harmed. (Butler) __
 * Anthropocentric ** __ - viewing and interpreting everything in terms of human experience and values. ([|Dictionary.com])

__** Anthropogenic **__- effects, processes or materials that are derived from, CAUSED BY, human activities, as opposed to those occurring in natural environments without human influence. (2009) __**Biocentric Egalitarianism**__ - the view that all organisms are equal.

**__Biocentrism__** - Main focus is the value of non-human species, ecosystems, and processes in nature, instead of anthropocentrism which focuses on human value. (2009)

__** Chauvinism  **__ - biased devotion to any group, attitude, or cause. ([|Dictionary.com])
 * __Bioempathy (Keekok Lee)__ ** - is the idea that due to the common evolutionary history shared by all living things on earth, all natural beings are then members of the same living/biotic community. THUS "human" sympathy is naturally extended to other living beings and transformed into bioempathy (ie, sympathy with all living creatures). (Anelli)


 * __Consequentialist Ethics__ ** - rule-based ethics (as opposed to virtue ethics) in which "right" and "wrong" are determined soley by the results or consequences of a given action (thus utilitarianism is normally considdered to be consequentialist). (Anelli)
 * __Considered Preference (Norton)__** - concept opposed to felt preferences - see below. Any humanly expressed desire or need that a) results after careful deliberation; b) Includes judgment that the desire or need is consistent with a rationally adopted world view; c) is based on a world view that includes fully supported scientific theories and a metaphysical framework interpreting those theories; and d) is based on a world view that includes a set of rationally supported aesthetic and moral ideals.  (Anelli)

** __Deontological Ethics__ ** - a non-consequentialist, rule-based ethics in which "right" and "wrong" are determined soley b y doing what is "right", doing one's "duty," or performing an "obligation." Emphasis is placed the moral agent's intentions (as opposed to the actual outcome of the action). The following are often considered in evaluating intentions: whether the moral agent is being logically consistent, applying universalizable rules, etc. Originally conceived by Immanuel Kant. (Anelli)
 * __Deep Ecology__ ** -

**__Ecofeminism__** -

__** Ecosystem **__ -
 * __Emotivism (Lee)__ ** - (also known as the hurrah/boo theory) is the meta-ethical view which claims that: 1) Ethical sentences do not express propositions (or claims). 2) Instead, ethical sentences express emotional attitudes (like "hurray!" or "boo"). [|en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotivism] (note: "emotivist ethics"is basically opposed to "cognitive ethics" which includes consequentialism, virtue ethics, and deontology") (Anelli)

**__Environmentalism__** - broad philosophy and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the state of the environment. ([]) (Butler)

__**Environmental Pragmatism**__ - A method of thinking with respect to environment ethics and policy that assumes empirical evidence and the relevance of many different (and sometimes differing) philosophical perspectives to the end of actually achieving something. (2009)

__**Environmental Racism**__ - intentional or unintentional racial discrimination involving dumping, or placement of environmentally hazardous substances in certain communities, because of the race and/or powerlessness of people in those communities, and the exclusion of minorities from public and private boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies. (2009)


 * __Felt Preferences (Norton)__** - any desire or need of human that can at least temporarily be sated by some specifiable experience of that individual; the"value" is measured subjectively according to intensity to the subject.” (Anelli)

and "pain" are broadly construed to include not only physical pleasures and pains but many different kinds including pleasant and unpleasant psychological states. (2009) __** Individualist Consequentialism **__ - the unit of ethical concern is always the individual organism's state of affairs rather than the ecosystem's or species'.(2009)
 * __Hedonistic Utilitarian -__** Define happiness in terms of the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain where both "pleasure"

__**Instrumental Value**__ - value assigned to something because of its usefulness.(??)


 * __ Intrinsic Value __ **  - value such that nature's existence or flourishing is a morally good thing independent of its relation or use to anything else.

** __IPCC__ ** - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It was jointly established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988. The IPCC publishes annual scientific reports representing the collective work of over 2,000 scientists (with peer-review practice), principally in the atmospheric sciences, but also comprising social, economic and other environmental components potentially impacted by climate change. (Anelli)


 * __Ipso Facto__-- ** [Sentence Used: "Taking any interest whatever constitutes value //ipso facto//." (144 Rolston)] Latin for "by the fact itself." Therefore because of the fact of the object, either animate or inanimate, it is then available to become intrinsically valued.

__ **Metaphysics** __ - The philosophical study of being and the nature of reality. (2009)


 * __Miniride Principle (Varner)__ ** - in situations in which COMPARABLE harms are involved, the miniride principle requires us to harm the fewest in number instead of the many. Similar to utilitarianism except that focus is NOT on maximizing happiness of greatest number but on minimizing harm to individuals. Miniride is generally supported by rights views because miniride requires that we respect all individuals equally. (Anelli)

__**Monism**__ - The view in metaphysics that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things can be ascribed to or described by a single concept or system. (2009)

__**Mutely Enacted Value**__ - This value pertains to intrinsic value associated with nonhuman nature. Valuable “for itself,” it is connected with a nonhuman capacity to strive for preservation and maintanenace, and exists independent of human reason and consciousness (2009) __**Naturalistic Fallacy**__ - To find what biologically is in nature and conclude that something valuable is there, something which we may say we ought to protect. (2009) ** __Obligatory Management Species (Varner)__ ** - is a species that regularly overshoots the carrying capacity of its range to detriment of future generations of it and other species. Thus hunting of these is morally obligatory. (Anelli)

**__Organism__** - a form of life composed of mutually interdependent parts that maintain various vital processes. (2009)


 * __Panpsychism__** - Theory that all matter has some form of consciousness . (2009)

__**Pareto Optimal**__ - Named after Vilfredo Pareto, Italian economist (1848-1923). A theory were no one could be made better off without making someone else worse off. (2009)

__**Parfit's Paradox**__ - (from Norton reading) - the notion that it's IMPOSSIBLE for ANY system of ethics, BASED PURELY on the INTERESTS of PRESENT and FUTURE INDIVIDUALS, to govern CURRENT decisions and their effects on future individuals. It would be absurd that future individuals, whose existence was predicated on "unethical policies" in the past, would condemn the very policies that led to their birth! So... one cannot refer to the interests of future individuals to decide whether a given present policy is ethical or not. (Anelli)

a species that does not normally overshoot its range. Permissive species do overpopulate but not in a way that degrades their own habitat such that their own species is threatened. Thus hunting of these is optional, “merely permissible” (Anelli)
 * __Permissive Management Species (Varner)__ ** -
 * __Pluralism__** - a theory that there is more than one basic substance or principle. (2009)

**__Preference Utilitarian -__** Define happiness in terms of the satisfaction of preferences which can, but do not need to be accompanied by pleasure. (2009)


 * __Projectivism (Lee, Hargrove)__ ** -the "projection" or "attribution" (by the mind/consciousness) of qualities to an object as if those qualities actually belong to it. David Hume is the most famous proponent of this view: "the mind has a great propensity to spread itself on external objects" (2009)


 * __Projects (Varner reading)__ ** - desires that significantly transcend the present and the DESIRE TO CONTINUE LIVING; sophisticated projects require self-consciousness and include "having" the concepts of life, death, and self.

__**Recognized Articulated Value**__ - Value dependent upon human capacity of consciousness, reason, and language. Without human beings who have these tendencies, this value does not exist. The source of Recognized Articulated Value is human but the locus can be either human or otherwise. (2009)

__**Self Awareness**__ - The capacity to realize or understand one's own individuality, and perhaps to have personal goal or interests. (2009)

__ **Sentient** __ - Responsive to or conscious of sense impressions.

__**Shallow Ecology**__ - the fight against pollution and resource depletion for purely anthropocentric reasons. The central objective is the health and well-being of people in developed countries. (2009) __ **Social Ecology** __ - __ **Speciesist** __ - The assumption of human superiority leading to the exploitation of animals. (2009)


 * __Sport Hunting (Varner)__ ** - hunting in order to maintain religious or cultural traditions, reenacting national or evolutionary history, honing certain skills, gaining trophies . (Anelli)

**__Symbiosis-__** Close association of animals or plants. (2009)


 * __Teleology__** - Relating to the study of ultimate causes in nature or of actions in relation to their ends or utility. (2009)

hunting designed to secure overall welfare of the target species and / or ecosystem. (Anelli)
 * __Therapeutic Hunting (Varner)__ ** -

__**Value**__ - any object or quality desirable as a means or as an end in itself. (2009) __Value Objectivists__ ** - in trinsic value exists independently of humans, we recognize or discover pre-existing natural values. (2009)


 * __Virtue Ethics__ ** - unlike rules-based ethics (consequentialism and deontology), virtue ethics emphasizes development of character, of morally sophisticated dispositions and moral perceptual capacities, in moral agents - within the context of community or cultural values and practices. Aristotle is considered the foundational thinker of Virtue Ethics. (Anelli)


 * __Weak Anthropocentrism__ ** - Weak-Anthropocentrism "weakens" strong-anthropocentrism by various ways: a) it might permit some forms of human-centered, but intrinsic value to exist with respect to natural objects; or b) it might distinguish between "higher and lower" interests or preferences and give more weight to "higher" pleasures or preferences with respect to natural objects. Weak-anthropocentrists also reject attempts to reduce all instrumental value to economically measurable commodity-value. (Anelli)


 * __Worse off Principle (Varner)__ ** - in situations in which NON-COMPARABLE harms are involved, the worse-off principle requires us to AVOID harming the individual that will be the WORSE-OFF as a result. (Anelli)