competing claims
General Problems of Competing Claims
- Moral dilemmas that arise when human
rights and values conflict with the good of
non-humans
**Competing Moral Claims
- Conflict between good of other species and
the realization of human values &
opportunity to exercise human rights
o Policies furthering human interest
are detrimental to the well-being of
organisms in eco-system
o Benefit of wildlife involves cost on
part of humans
- In order to coexist with other species, we
must impose limits on human population,
habits of consumption, and technology
o Promote the ff attitudes:
Respect for Nature: must not harm
or interfere with viable life
community
Respect for Humans: duty to
provide for freedom, autonomy, and
well-being of ourselves and of
fellow humans
o Given both systems of ethics, must
take both into equal consideration
**Problem of Competing Claims
“How can situations of competing moral claims
arising from conflicts between human ethics and
environmental ethics be fairly resolved?”
- Finding a set of priority principles that cut
across the domains of environmental ethics
and human ethics
o Satisfy five formal conditions of
morality
o Embody concept of fairness
 Decisions made based on
such will result in fair
treatment of both parties
(species-impartiality)
Human Rights and the Inherent Worth of Non-humans
- Following biocentric outlook, reject idea of
human superiority
o Humans ascribe to themselves
moral rights, but this does not imply
inequality between them & other
living things
 advantage: recognized
“sanctity” of personhood
o Recognition that animals and plants
have inherent worth = putting them
on equal footing with humans
 Giving them due concern
and consideration
Five Priority Principles for Fair Resolution of
Conflicting Claims
- Vision of best possible world that expresses
the spirit behind the letter of the five
principles that unifies them and interrelates
them in a coherent manner, and that gives
them their overall point and purpose
- Fair resolution to problem of competing
claims is decision that fits coherently into
overall vision of human civilization and
nature that underlies and unifies the 5
principles
- Latter four principles apply to situations
where the nonhuman organism is harmless
o cases of conflict not covered by self-
defense
Basic Interests
o people’s needs to make their life
meaningful and worthwhile
 interests that have the right
to be fulfilled
o common to all
Non-basic Interests
o ends worth seeking and means
considered best for achieving them
o vary from person to person
*Types:
o Intrinsically Incompatible with
Attitude of Respect for Nature
 Satisfying such shows
exploitative attitude
towards nature
 Considers wild creatures to
have merely instrumental
value for human ends; thus,
denies inherent worth of
animals & plants
 Treat animals and
plants only a a
source of human
pleasure
 ex. killing elephants for ivory
tusks to trade
picking rare wildflowers
for private collections
killing animals for apparel
hunting for pleasure (even if
they eat what they have killed,
primary purpose for hunting is
NOT sustenance)
o Not in Themselves Incompatible
with Respect for Nature
 Have consequences
undesirable from the
perspective of respect for
nature & must be avoided if
possible
 If human interest is not
valued highly enough to
outweigh bad
consequences, must forfeit
the action
 If human interest is highly
valued and pursued despite
consequences, it does not
embody respect for nature,
but si not exploitative either
ex. constructing airport
involving disturbance of natural
ecosystem
replacing native forest with
a timber plantation
damming a free-flowing
river for hydroelectric power
**Principle of Self-Defense
- Permissible for humans to protect themselves
against dangerous or harmful organisms
(threaten life or basic health of humans) by
destroying them
o Only when cannot avoid being
exposed to these organisms
o Cannot prevent organisms from
doing serious damage to
environment of humans
o Means of self-protection must result
in least possible harm to the
organisms
- Cannot harm species that do not harm us,
unless they are inseparable from harmful
species
- Consistent with rule of species-impartiality
o Cannot allow furthering of organism
because it belongs to one species
over the other
**Principles of Proportionality
- Conflict between basic interests of animals
or plants and the non-basic human interests
that are intrinsically incompatible with
respect for nature
**Principle of Minimum Wrong
- Conflict between basic interests of animals
or plants and the non-basic human interest
compatible with respect for nature but
detrimental to nature
- Occurs when:
o Basic interests of animals & plants
are unavoidably in competition with
non-basic interests of humans
o Human interests are not intrinsically
incompatible with respect for nature
 Actions needed to satisfy
interest are detrimental to
nature
 High value placed on
interest that undesirable
consequences > respect for
nature
- What is the basis for special importance of
human interest with high value?
o Need for community’s steady
advancement with cultural and
social norms
- Permissible to proceed with action satisfying
human interest given it involves the least
wrong compared to any alternative way
pursuing those values
* Common Forms of Harm:
- Habitat Destruction
o humans should choose ways of life
that minimizes habitat destruction
o reuse areas that have already been
used for human purposes but are
now deteriorating or abandoned
- Environmental Pollution
o Follow general policies to ensure
that only the least dangerous forms
of pollution will be permitted
o Clean up polluted environments that
are harmful to nonhumans and
humans
o Dev’t of “appropriate technologies”
 - Direct killing populations of biotic
o Ask if human values being furthered community a chance at
are really worth the extreme cost of receiving benefits from
killing wild creatures
 Reflect on value system to **Principle of Restitutive Justice
find possible modifications - Applies when minimum wrong or
o Examine alternatives that either distributive justice has been used
eliminates direct killing or - Some form of compensation must be given to
minimizes the number of organisms the nonhuman organism
killed o Greater harm done, greater
o Abhorrence to killing  recognition compensation required
of duty for reparation/compensation o Focus on the soundness and health
for harm done to living things in of whole ecosystems and their biotic
natural world components rather than on the good
of the greatest number of organisms
**Principle of Distributive Justice
- Conflicts where interests of all parties
involved are basic
o Criteria for just distribution of
interest-fulfillment among all
parties to a conflict of same moral
weight
- When interests are all basic and there exists
a natural source of good to be used for the
benefit of any party, each party must get an
equal share
- Requires to devise ways of transforming
situations of confrontation to mutual
accommodation whenever possible to do so
o Can share benefit resources of the
world
- Transform situations of rivalry and
competition to patterns of mutual
accommodation and tolerance
o Permanent Habitat Allocation
 Setting aside certain land
and water areas to be
forever “wild”
o Common Conservation
 Sharing resources while
being used by both humans
and nonhumans
o Environmental Integration
 Fit human construction and
development into natural
surroundings such that it
can conserve the ecological
integrity of the region as a
whole
o Rotation
 “taking turns:
 Whenever possible, should
give the species