ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

期刊基本信息

期刊名称：ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

期刊ISSN：0163-4275

期刊数据表：

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS英文简介：

The field of environmental ethics concerns human beings’ ethical relationship with the natural environment. While numerous philosophers have written on this topic throughout history, environmental ethics only developed into a specific philosophical discipline in the 1970s. This emergence was no doubt due to the increasing awareness in the 1960s of the effects that technology, industry, economic expansion and population growth were having on the environment. The development of such awareness was aided by the publication of two important books at this time. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, first published in 1962, alerted readers to how the widespread use of chemical pesticides was posing a serious threat to public health and leading to the destruction of wildlife. Of similar significance was Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book, The Population Bomb, which warned of the devastating effects the spiraling human population has on the planet’s resources. Of course, pollution and the depletion of natural resources have not been the only environmental concerns since that time: dwindling plant and animal biodiversity, the loss of wilderness, the degradation of ecosystems, and climate change are all part of a raft of “green” issues that have implanted themselves into both public consciousness and public policy over subsequent years. The job of environmental ethics is to outline our moral obligations in the face of such concerns. In a nutshell, the two fundamental questions that environmental ethics must address are: what duties do humans have with respect to the environment, and why? The latter question usually needs to be considered prior to the former. In order to tackle just what our obligations are, it is usually thought necessary to consider first why we have them. For example, do we have environmental obligations for the sake of human beings living in the world today, for humans living in the future, or for the sake of entities within the environment itself, irrespective of any human benefits? Different philosophers have given quite different answers to this fundamental question which, as we shall see, has led to the emergence of quite different environmental ethics.

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS中文简介：

环境伦理学研究的是人与自然环境的伦理关系。虽然历史上有很多哲学家都写过这个话题，但环境伦理学直到20世纪70年代才发展成为一门特定的哲学学科。这种出现无疑是由于1960年代人们日益认识到技术、工业、经济扩张和人口增长对环境的影响。这种意识的发展得益于当时出版的两本重要著作。雷切尔•卡森(Rachel Carson)于1962年首次出版的《寂静的春天》(Silent Spring)提醒读者，化学杀虫剂的广泛使用正对公共健康构成严重威胁，并导致野生动物遭到破坏。同样重要的是保罗•埃利希(Paul Ehrlich) 1968年的著作《人口炸弹》(The Population Bomb)，该书警告称，不断增长的人口对地球资源造成了毁灭性的影响。当然,污染和自然资源的消耗没有唯一的环境问题从那时起:动植物生物多样性,减少损失的荒野,生态系统的退化和气候变化都是一系列的“绿色”问题的一部分,将自己植入公共意识和公共政策后续多年。环境伦理学的工作是概述我们面对这些问题时的道德义务。简而言之，环境伦理学必须解决的两个基本问题是:人类对环境有哪些责任?为什么?后一个问题通常需要在前一个问题之前考虑。为了明确我们的义务是什么，人们通常认为有必要首先考虑我们为什么要承担这些义务。例如，我们是否为了生活在当今世界上的人类，为了生活在未来的人类，或者为了环境本身的实体而负有环境义务，而不顾人类的任何利益?不同的哲学家对这个基本问题给出了不同的答案，正如我们将要看到的，这导致了截然不同的环境伦理学的出现。

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS在线问答：