Environmental Systems and Societies · HL lenses (higher level only)

ESL.c — Environmental ethics

Environmental Systems and Societies · SL / HL · syllabus-mapped notes

1. Ethics and environmental ethics

   Ethics as the philosophy of right and wrong, and environmental ethics: its 1960s-70s emergence and why Western traditions were felt to be inadequate.

2. Beliefs about the human-nature relationship

   How differing fundamental beliefs yield ecocentric, stewardship and anthropocentric/technocentric ethical positions.

3. Instrumental and intrinsic value

   Instrumental value (usefulness to humans) and intrinsic value (worth for what a thing is), and why the two are not exclusive.

4. Moral standing

   What it means for an entity to be morally considered, ecocentric extensions to living and non-living nature (Leopold's land ethic), and future generations.

5. The three traditional ethical approaches

   Virtue ethics, consequentialist (utilitarian) ethics and rights-based (deontological) ethics, contrasted by their focus.

6. The appeal to nature, and converging justice movements

   The 'appeal to nature' fallacy, and the converging goals of environmental and social justice movements.