Term
| Mechanistic View of Nature |
|
Definition
| A mechanistic view of nature is one of control or domination. It was adopted during the scientific revolution. It evokes viewing nature as a set of processes that can be controlled. |
|
|
Term
| Ecological View of Nature |
|
Definition
| An ecological view of nature is one of instrumental stewardship. It involves conserving and preserving nature and the resources contained within to ensure a constant human benefit. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Domination involves using nature and its resources with no concern for the plants, animals, and life contained within. It is the idea that we can control nature to best benefit ourselves. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Stewardship involves taking care of the environment because it has intrinsic value. This view does not focus on what can be taken from nature, but rather what we can do to aid nature. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Human-Centered ethics can be broken into two groups; those who see nature as something that is to be dominated and controlled regardless of its consequences and those who have a more ecological view and see the need for instrumental stewardship. That is, they preserve nature for the sake of its benefits to humanity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Bio-Centered ethics revolve around the idea of essential stewardship. They believe that nature has intrinsic value of its own and deserves to be taken care of. |
|
|
Term
| Benefits of Environment to Humanity |
|
Definition
| Humans draw many tangible and intangible benefits from the environment we live in. We get food, oxygen, natural materials and resources, and companionship from the plants and animals around us. We also derive aesthetic pleasure from the beautiful landscapes and recreation from the natural obstacles that certain areas provide. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| This is an environmental value that is often focused on by environmentalists. “Ecology makes us aware of the finite carrying capacity of the planet and the need to adopt a long time scale. Both utilitarianism and the concept of intergenerational justice support the claim that we have obligations to future generations. Biblical religion has an extended temporal and special frame, since God’s purposes encompass the past, present, and future of the cosmos. I suggested that our use of renewable resources should not exceed the maximum sustainable yield and that non-renewable resources should not be more rapidly than new technologies can compensate for their depletion. Population stabilization is also an essential component of sustainability.” |
|
|
Term
| Duties to Future Generations |
|
Definition
| Barbour proposes the idea of justice between generations which puts the mediator of rules for future generations in the position of somebody who does not know which generation they will become a part of. This makes creating regulations a bit more difficult because they have to be universal. He says that we have a duty to preserve the wilderness, conserve resources, and seek ways to repair what has been damaged. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Most western philosophers believe that we have no duty to animals because of their lack of reason. They believe that reason is what separates man from the lesser animals. Utilitarians have fought this view and assert that we have a duty to all things that can feel pain and pleasure “somewhere between a shrimp and an oyster”. Barbour contends that there needs to be some sort of principle of discrimination in order to determine the welfare of different forms of life when they conflict. He suggests the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead that life forms should be classified by their intrinsic good and instrumental good. |
|
|
