Exploring Environmental Ethics: An Introduction

by Kimberly K. Smith

This book is designed as a basic text for courses that are part of an interdisciplinary program in environmental studies. The intended reader is anyone who expects environmental stewardship to be an important part of his or her life, as a citizen, a policy maker, or an environmental management professional.  In addition to discussing major issues in environmental ethics, it invites readers to think about how an ethicist's perspective differs from the perspectives encountered in other environmental studies courses.  Additional topics covered include corporate social responsibility, ecological citizenship, property theory, and the concept of stewardship as a vocation.

Genres: Philosophy

114 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2018

Reviews

[CM · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief, accessible text that deserves to be given a proper cover for its enjoyable yet informative delivery. With a scenario of a landowner in Michigan, we are introduced to the key ethical questions regarding our environment:

What are the major schools of thoughts?
How to decide the right course of action for the nature?
What are our duties to non-humans?
To the future generations?
What is property and how should we take care of it?
What do we mean when we value landscape and biodiversity?
Who should be making all these decisions?

While it may be more on the introductory side of the discussion, arguments and some counter arguments are clearly stated and interested readers can easily follow the reference to further reading. At times the content may be slightly less connected to the hypothetical scenario but it's not a major issue.