Source of ecological crisis =
PHILO REVIEWER
1. Environmental Ethics
*notes
Environmental Ethics
 Discipline in philo that studies
man’s moral relationship, value,
and status to the environment
Approaches in Environmental Ethics
 ANTHROPOCENTRISM
 Man is the center of moral
consideration
 The earth and natural resources
are more instruments for man’s
benefits
 This is because of Man’s
Rationality
 But a human centered perspective
would have to support broad
environmentalism for it to be
viable.
 ENLIGHTENED/ PRUDENTIAL
ANTHROPOCENTRISM
 Man HAS to take care of the
environment.
 NOT to dominate BUT to be a
steward
 PATHOCENTRISM
 Man & Animals are the center of
Moral Consideration
o Animals are sentient beings:
they feel pain ; In suffering,
animals are our equals
o They possess:
inherent/intrinsic value ;
they are not mere
instruments for man’s
selfish needs
 BIOCENTRISM
 All living Organisms are the
center of moral Consideration
 Life – centered theory
 Each and every living organisms
has its own telos (goal/end)
 Organisms ought to be allowed to
reach its maturity for it to fulfill its
goal of reproduction
 ECOCENTRISM
 Holistic Entities / Communities :
Moral Consideration
 All living beings are reduced as
mere members of an ecosystem /
community
 Viewed as the next stage of man’s
ethical development
 Man sees less individualistically
*book
A. Human as Masters of the Environment
According to Lynn White :
anthropocentric attitude
 Anthropocentrism – valuing nature
because of material/physical
benefits it can provide for humans
 Cause of anthropocentrism =
Christianity because
o It was established that all
humans are made master
over nature because
humans are created in
God’s image.
 Ex. Agriculture as human’s
occupation
 Nature/environment is valued for
its instrumental worth.
 How the environment can serve
people’s needs
 Man being master = there will not
be a way to resolve the ecological
crisis
According to Lewis Moncrief :
 Wrote The Cultural Basis of Our
Environmental Crisis
o Environmental crisis is not a
religious problem
 Value of nature is still instrumental
 Worth of the environment is
evaluated on the basis of how it will
benefit and make the life of
humans more comfortable
 To use what is in nature without
considering its effects in the future
or to the rest of humanity.
B. Humans as Stewards of the
Environment
According to Patrick Dobel :
 Judeo-Christian Stewardship
Attitude to Nature
 STEWARDSHIP ATTITUDE
 Can maintain love and respect
toward the environment without
eliminating ethical and
technological distinctions and
without denying the use of the
earth for the benefit of all humanity
 Must not exhaust resources, must
provide replacements, and must
take responsibility
 Attitude of equality and not of
superiority
C. Humans as Members of Earth’s
Community
According to Aldo Leopold :
 “Ecocentrism: The Land Ethic”
 ECOLOGICAL CONSCIENCE
o Human person manages the
natural environment where
he/she is concerned of both
 the biotic and economic Two types of being emerge:
ground for the loss of
species. 1. Being-in-itself
o Humans must develop and 2. Being-for-itself
3. Nothingness
nurture in him/herself that
every living thing and
nonliving has
*notes
inherent/intrinsic value. PLATO
BIOCENTRIC EGALITARIANISM : respect for  Man = soul/mind
nature as its central moral attitude.  Soul is immortal
 Opposed to the anthropocentric  Body = prisons of soul
 Prima facie (at first view b4 ARISTOTLE
investigation)
 Each human is bound to  Man = both body and soul (mortal
protect/promote good for their and principle of activities)
sake.  *body dies, soul dies
 Man is a composite being made up
According to Paul Taylor : of Matter & Form.
 “Biocentric Egalitarianism”  Matter: Potency/Potentiality
 Attitude of respect for nature as  Form: Act/Activity
part of an individual’s moral  Permanence under Form ; Change
outlook under Matter
 Two General Principles: Moral  3 types of soul
Consideration and Intrinsic Value o Rational Soul
o Animal Soul
Principle of Moral Consideration: wild o Vegetative soul
living things deserve the concern and  Happiness/Good Life = Fulfillment
consideration of all moral agents by virtue of telos (goal/end)
of their being members of Earth’s  PLATO AND ARISTOTLE GAVE
community of life. IMPORTANCE TO RATIONALITY IN
ACHIEVE A HAPPY/GOOD LIFE
Principal of Intrinsic Value: regardless
of its kind, if it’s a member of the CHRISTIANITY
community of life, it is intrinsically
valuable. St. Augustine of St Aquinas
Hippo
 Virtue of humility  In line with  In line with
Plato’s Aristotle’s
teachings. teachings.
 Doesn’t  Man’s body
2. What is man? give and soul
importance are
*book to the body. immortal.
 Happiness  The soul,
 Behavioral Aspect = after the
 Attitudinal Aspect Communion death of
with God. man’s
Theories on Human Nature body, is not
 Plato, Socrates in natural
state.
o Human Person as an
 In
Immortal Soul resurrection
o Phaedrus , the soul is
 Aristotle praeter
o Body and Soul naturan:
o De Anima (1968) “beyond
o Aristotle’s Physchology nature”.
 Rene Descartes
o Thinking Thing
RENES DESCARTES
Human Condition  Man = I ; mind (res cogitans)/ soul
 Jean Paul Sartre (French)  Mind : res cogitans (thinking
o Being and Nothingness: A substance) ; immaterial
Phenomenological Essay on  Body : res extensa (extended
Ontology substance) ; material
o “Nothingness is not just a  Consciousness
 Body – extended substance
mer mental state but also
o *substances – can exist w/o
an experience”
 Edmund Husserl (German) anything else
  Happy/ Good Life – respond well to  Values
responsibilities o Intrinsic Value
o Instrumental Value
THOMAS HOBBES
o Originative Value
 Man = body – material: egoistic & o Contributory Value
selfish.
 No soul *google classroom
 Body = material
 Human Body = egoistic EXISTENTIALISM
 Self-preservation through social
contract with Leviathan  Philosophy of man’s finitude, of
(government) = Good/Happy Life. man in his concrete situation in the
world (human existence)
HINDUISM
SOREN KIERKEGAARD (1813-
 Monotheism
 Way of life > religion 1855)
 No particular leader
 Reaction to Hegel’s Philosophy:
 Practice > Beliefs
man is a cog in a machine.
 No uniform set of beliefs/gurus
 Kierkegaard gave importance to
 Hinduism is PANENTHEISTIC
man’s individuality, freedom, and
 Panentheistic: everything is
absurdity.
Brahman yet Brahman transcends
 Widely considered as the first
everything.
existentialist philosopher
 Atman = man/soul. Atman is
 Man CANNOT be defined.
Brahman in Man.
 He is irreducible and NOT
 Hindus believe in no individual self.
determined.
 Purusharthas (4 Goals): Artha
 Possibilities ; Choices ; Freedom
(wealth), Kama (pleasure:
 Man’s existence is aut-aut (either-
bodily/mental), Dharma (moral
or) not et-et (both-and)
duty), Moksha (spiritual
 Indeterminate & irreducible
liberation/enlightenment ; return of
 Man is free. Each individual is
atman to Brahman).
unique.
 Man/men are manifestations of the
 Definition of man = number of
Brahman.
individuals
Enligtenment Period – Reason  Three modes or levels of
existence in which man can
Romanticism – Nature Emotion choose from, can fluctuate or
oscillate:
Existentialism – Freedom ; human
o Aesthetic
existence
 Least
 Hegel  Consists in living a
o Man = cog in machine life where
o Part sensibility prevails
 Kierkegaard  Pleasure/Good Taste
o Individuality vs Pain & Boredom
o Freedom  Restlessness
o Anxiety ; absurdity (desired cannot be
fully satisfied)
(absordium) ; uncertainty ;
o Ethical
fear
 No longer motivated
by sensible desired
for pleasure
3. Existentialism  Duties & obligations
 Not totally free from
*book anxiety.
 Man does not feel
Martin Heidegger: fully liberated
DETERMINISM -
Carl Hoefer, “Casual Determinism” o Religious
 Personal/intimate relationship with
 Casual Determinism
God. (aesthetic + ethical)
 Physical Determinism
 “Leap of Faith”
Act of Making A Choice o Towards the absolute.
 Robert Nozick: weighing the o By virtue of absurd.
reasons
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
 Ubermensch
o overman, superman,
superhuman, hyperhuman
o We must go BEYOND
wherever we are now.
o Transcend our limitations.
 “Man is something that must be
overcome” -Thus Spoke
Zarathustra
 “Man is to be transcended; failure
to do so reduces man to that level
of beasts.”
 Maintained Kierkegaard’s concept
on man added that: Man has the
capacity to go beyond what is
fixed and determined.
 Man NEEDS to TRANSCEND
himself as to live an AUTHENTIC
LIFE.
 God : a whole system of values.
o Made by men as expression
of their “Will to power”
o Sees the truth in the same
manner
 *not angry with God & Christianity
but the people
 Calls for Transvaluation (reversal
of values)
o Values prove to be
disvalues; disvalues prove
to be values
 Traditional Morality : Slave
Morality
o Blindly following or
abiding by the values of
others imposed on us
 Master Morality : to create
ourselves our own values of
principles
 Two Spirits: descriptive of the
possibilities in living out our human
existence
JEAN PAUL SARTRE
 Facticity
o Individual’s first limitations
o Things in our lives that are
already given
 Entre-en-soi
o being-in-itself
o non-human beings
o concrete, lacks ability to
change
o unaware of itself
 Entre-pour-soi
o Being-for-itself
o Man/human beings
o Conscious of its
consciousness
o Incomplete: non-determined
nature of man
o Man himself determines
what he desires to be
o He is a project yet to be
accomplished
 “Existence precedes essence”
EXISTENTIALISM ESSENTIALISM
 “Existence  “Essence
precedes precedes
essence. “ existence.”
 ESSNTIALISM
 Each being has a determined and
preordained essence
 Which necessarily defines its
identity and function
 Man must function as a man
 “Essence precedes existence”
 EXISTENTIALISM
o Non-human beings have
determined and preordained
essence
o Man has no preordained essence
o Man is nothing; he is yet to be
something
o Man makes himself
o Man makes sense & meaning of the
world
o Own your life!
 Absolute Human Liberty; he is
completely free:
o in creating himself
o in giving sense and meaning
o the world
o Absurdity : making meaning
in a meaningless world
o Man is condemned to be
free.
o A blessing and a curse.
 Man has to be responsible w his
choices.
o Failure to be responsible:
Bad Faith
o Non-recognition of one’s
own choices and freedom
o Blaming things on necessity.
“I have no choice!”
4. Death
 Essential temporal character
Martin Heidegger: “Being on Time”
o When people face and
acknowledge death, they
are able to free up
themselves to become
themselves.
o Fully knowing the character
of Dasein after it has died
o Dasein : presence
o “Being-with” in a different
sene
  Death is inevitable.
 A person who accepts and
confronts the possibility of death is
one who lives an authentic life.
 Death is a possibility
o Any moment, it could
happen
 They-self:
o Everydayness of Dasein
o To treat death as an
actuality, not a possibility
o “Death certainly comes, but
not right away.”

 Authentic Self:
o Accepts the inevitability of
death by freeing him/herself
of the anxiety of life.
o Death is a possibility.

Harm Thesis
- Tells us that death is harmful to
human beings.
- Comparativism
1. Death is bad for us
2. Because:
1. Comparison
between the
person’s welfare
2. Possibilities that
will be missed out
- Epicurus: death cannot harm a
person
1. When death has not yet
occurred
2. When it has already
occurred, especially if
death is meant as the
state of the person after
life has ended.
Read book.