EnvironmentalEthics-AnimalLiberationFront.pptVIP

Questions In Environmental Ethics types of environmental ethics The roots of environmental degradation What are they? Agriculture displaced sustainable foraging lifeways, beginning 10,000 years agoAgricultures destroyed ecosystems and the foraging societies that had co-evolved with themPaul Shephard Western Monotheistic Religion? Critics cite 4 anti-nature tendencies in western religions 1) Domination of Nature Genesis: God commands humans to fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing...” After the great flood God says to Noah: the animals will dread and fear you, and I will give you dominion over everything that creeps on the ground, and over all the fish of the sea. 2) Rejection of Animism Pantheism Animists believe that every part of the environment, living and non-living, has consciousness or spirit. Therefore, all beings deserve reverence. Pantheists identify deities with natural objects and processes. Therefore nature is sacred or holy and people should have reverence for it 3) Wilderness is cursed; Pastoral, agricultural, and City landscapes are Holy, Promised Lands Our traditions promote a care-giving stewardship not domination of nature. (Noah story) Some admit the general destructive tendency, but say: Minority traditions within the wider tradition are nature-beneficent. Both traditions are currently mutating into forms increasingly concerned with the environment Western Philosophy -another culprit? Critics blame its “dualism,” viewing humans as separate from and superior to nature Rene Descartes is often blamed Rene Descartes (1596-1650): believed that animals have no minds and cannot suffer Humans have minds and souls, they are different from animals His famous dictum -- `I think, therefore I am’ -- suggested to him that thought reveals not only existence, but also human superiority So for Descartes, HUMANS are separate from nature and superior to it. A