UNISA
PLS3701 – Theoretical and Applied Ethics
ENVIRONMENTAL SPHERE SUMMARY
IMPORTANT
- This is a summary of UNISA’s PLS3701 Environmental Ethics syllabus
- READ THROUGH YOUR UNISA STUDY GUIDE & TEXTBOOKFIRST!
- While the UNISA Study Guide and the relevant text book have been used to create
this summary, this summary is a broad outline of the syllabus.
- Get an overview of the module and then study each topic individually
- Use this guide in conjunction with the UNISA study guide and text book – it is not a
substitute
- Ensure you understand the content of this module in order to pass.
,Topic 1: SETTING THE SCENE AND INTRODUCING YOU TO HUMAN-CENTERED ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS - 394
A.) What is Environmental Ethics and Why is it Important?
Main Aim: introduce you to the central questions addressed in Environmental Ethics
B.) Point of Departure: Environmental Challenges in SA
- Make a note of any environmental problems in your surroundings EG:
o Air / air quality
o Soil/ Soil quality
o Water / Water Quality
o Wildlife, flora and fauna – alien/ invading plants or animals
o Risks / hazards in your environment
o Food safety, quality and quantity etc.
- Some concerns;
o Personal health/ wellbeing
o Harm to you/ other people
o Job losses/ disruption of social, political or cultural processes
o Harm to plants/ animals
o Damage to ecosystems
o Depletion, degradation, destruction of natural resource base
o Health & wellbeing of future generations (people)
o Survival of life on earth
o Justice issues
C.) The Nature & Importance of Ethics
- Ethics: the field of inquiry in which we make a systematic and critical study of the methods and
principles people use to distinguish between;
o What is morally right & morally wrong
o What is morally good & morally bad
o What deserves respect and sets an example to be followed on one hand, and what does not
deserve our respect and serves as an example that should be avoided on the other hand.
- We make ethical distinctions every day, many without any forethought e.g. it is wrong to murder an
innocent person
- Not always evident how we reach these conclusions.
- Ethics helps us to clarify;
o The nature and structure of those things we accept as our duties and obligations, as well as the
manner in which we discharge them.
o The nature and content of our needs and desires and how they relate to what we accept as a
morally good life in contradistinction to what we reject as morally bad
o The difference between what we accept and identify with as morally praiseworthy and what
we reject as morally blameworthy
- The importance of ethics is evident in;
1. People often differ on the question of WHERE exactly to draw the line between morally right
and wrong, good and bad, and what deserves respect and what not. This leads to clashes
(value disputes) – a large part of ethics is devoted to analysis of these value disputes
2. People also differ about reason and arguments.
The reasons and arguments are an articulation of the value theories
D.) The Nature & Importance of Environmental Ethics
- Environmental ethics is the field of enquiry which we make a systematic and critical study of the
methods and principles we use to distinguish between
o What is morally right & morally wrong
o What is morally good & morally bad
o What deserves respect and sets an example to be followed on one hand, and what does not
deserve our respect and serves as an example that should be avoided on the other hand.
- Why env. Ethics is important:
o Because our moral distinctions of the env. Aren’t always clear
- 5 key questions
1. What is the objective of our environmental concern?
2. What is the foundation of our environmental concern?
3. What are the objects of our environmental concern, in contrast to the things about
which we are not concerned?
4. What are the concrete actions, duties and obligations into which our concern
should be translated?
5. What should we do in the case of conflicting situations/ concerns?
PLS3701 1
, DEFINITIONS & DIFFERENCES
Differences
Moral claims make assertions about persons and their characters, good or bad, or
they make assertions about right or wrong ways to act.
Moral Claim
Moral claims are normative—and any moral claim will either be a moral value claim
or a moral prescriptive claim.
a. Relying on or derived from observation or experiment: empirical results that
supported the hypothesis.
Empirical Claim
b. Verifiable or provable by means of observation or experiment: empirical laws.
Guided by practical experience and not theory, especially in medicine
Justification The action of showing something to be right or reasonable.
Explanation A statement or account that makes something clear.
Predication The action of predicting something.
Description
Harm Physical injury, especially that which is deliberately inflicted.
Benefit An advantage or profit gained from something.
Regarding humankind as the central or most important element of existence,
Anthropocentrism
especially as opposed to God or animals.
There is an abundance of environmental goods available to us, and that all can
Cornucopian
share in the good life if distributive justice prevails.
Moral standing, in ethics, the status of an entity by virtue of which it is deserving of
consideration in moral decision making. ... Moral standing is often a key topic in
Moral standing
debates about animal rights and within bioethics, medical ethics, and environmental
ethics.
An ethical dilemma or ethical paradox is a decision-making problem between two
possible moral imperatives, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or
Conflict status
preferable. The complexity arises out of the situational conflict in which obeying one
would result in transgressing another.
A balance achieved between two desirable but incompatible features; a
Trade-offs
compromise.
Egoism An ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality.
The Divine Also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that
Command theory an action's status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God.
The doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority.
The doctrine that an action is right in so far as it promotes happiness, and that the
Utilitarianism
greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of
conduct.
The term 'natural law' is derived from the belief that human morality comes from
nature. Everything in nature has a purpose, including humans. ... In short, any law that
Natural law theory
is good is moral, and any moral law is good. Legal positivism is a legal theory that is
the opposite of the natural law theory
Refers to a deontological ethical theory ascribed to the German philosopher
Immanuel Kant. The theory, developed as a result of Enlightenment rationalism, is
Kantian ethics
based on the view that the only intrinsically good thing is a good will; an action can
only be good if its maxim – the principle behind it – is duty to the moral law.
Aggressive env. Activism with stronger controls, centralised government and putting
Eco-Fascism:
democracy under threat.
The rich and affluent sectors of society pin their hopes on centralised, authoritarian
Life Boat Ethic
states to protect their advantages.
being related such that each excludes or precludes the other – i.e. can’t be both at
Mutually Exclusive
the same time e.g. either a girl or a boy
PLS3701 2
