Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person

Module 4: The Human Person as part of the Environment

LESSON 4.1: ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS & ATTRIBUTION OF MORAL CONSIDERATION

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

Environmental Ethics is a discipline in philosophy that studies the moral relationship of

human beings to, and the value and moral status of, the environment and its non-human
contents.
ATTRIBUTION OF MORAL CONSIDERATION

Different and contrasting views from various philosophers as to whom should be given
moral consideration in the field of environmental ethics.

ATTRIBUTION OF MORAL CONSIDERATION

Philosophical viewpoint arguing that human beings are the central or
Anthropocentrism most significant entities in the world.

Moral consideration should be extended to intelligent animals who are

Pathocentrism
sentient.

A life-centered theory, it is the view that not only humans and animals,
Biocentrism but also plants should be morally considerate.

Ecocentrism Ecosystem-centered ethics regards ecosystems as holistic entities that

should be given moral consideration.

Aesthetics Concerned with the idea of what is beautiful.

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LESSON 4.2: THEORIES IN RADICAL ECOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY

ARNE NAESS

Proponent of Deep ecology assumes that all living

DEEP ECOLOGY things possess equal value and intrinsic worth
regardless of their usefulness or utility to other beings.

MURRAY BOOKCHIN

SOCIAL Proponent of Social ecology, believes that ecological

ECOLOGY problems can be traced to social problems.

It assumes that male-centered view of nature is the

root cause of ecological problems. To address
ECOFEMINISM environmental problems humanity must remove the
superior vs. inferior in human relations.

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LESSON 4.3: CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
The environmental crisis is one very concrete problem that threatens the existence of various
species, including our own, currently inhabiting our planet. The many possible causes of the
environmental crisis can be broadly classified into four types: the physical, legal,
socioeconomic, and attitudinal causes. First, the physical causes refer to those causes that
can in principle be studied by the sciences. They are, in this regard, observable and quantifiable,
and their processes are governed by the deterministic taws of nature. Physical causes can either
be natural or human-induced The occurrence of the natural physical causes is brought about
solely by the processes of nature. This means that they happen independently of any human
intervention or regardless of any human action.
The natural physical causes include, among others, storms, earthquakes, hurricanes,
tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, dry seasons, and pests. On the other hand, the occurrence of the
human-induced physical causes is brought about by human intervention in the processes of
nature. These human-induced physical causes include, among others, pollution, global warming,
depletion of natural resources, emission of toxic substances in the atmosphere, dumping of
nonbiodegradable waste materials into the oceans and rivers, and oil spills. The following are
some of the world's major environmental disasters whose causes are human induced (see online
references for environmental disasters).
1. Chernobyl Power Plant Explosion. The explosion of the power plant in Ukraine on April
26, 1986 is regarded as the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. The explosion
resulted in a nuclear meltdown that sent massive amounts of radiation into the
atmosphere, reportedly more than the fallout from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That adiation
drifted westward, across what was then Soviet Russia, toward Europe. Since then,
thousands of kids along the area have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
2. Union Carbide Pesticide Plant Accident. The accident, which happened in Bhopal, India
on December 2, 1984 resulted in 45 tons of poisonous methyl isocyanate escaping from
the facility. This is regarded as the worst industrial disaster so far in history. Just within
hours after the accident, thousands died and more followed over the following months.
About 15,000 people died and many of those who survived suffered various kinds of
diseases such blindness, organ failure, and other bodily malfunctions. And a high number
of children in the area have been born with all kinds of birth defects.
3. Kuwaiti Oil Fires. The oil fires in Kuwait resulted in poisonous smoke, soot and ash, black
rain, and lakes of oil, killing many livestock and other animals near the area. The oil fires,
which lasted for seven months, were due to Saddam Hussein's order to blow up
approximately 600 oil wells in Kuwait during the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
4. The Love Canal Tragedy. The contamination of Love Canal, a village with hundreds of
houses and a school located near Niagara Falls in upstate New York, in 1978. Love Canal
happened to sit atop 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste that had been buried
underground in the 1940s and 1950s by a local company. Over the years, the waste began
to bubble up into backyards and cellars. The residents suffered many kinds of illness.
5. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. The oil spill from the Exxon Valdez oil tanker on March 24, 1989
in Alaska killed hundreds of birds, fish, seals, otters, and other animals. Around 10.8
million gallons of oil were spilled into the sea.

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 We are not responsible for the occurrence of the natural physical causes, for there is
nothing that we can do to prevent them. In some situations, there something, however, that
we can do to minimize their damaging effects. For instance, knowing that a strong storm is most
likely to hit a certain town, there are things that we can do to minimize the damages of this storm.
We are thus only responsible for their damaging effects which we can minimize. What we are
directly responsible for, on the other hand, are the human-induced pe of physical causes,
for their occurrence is something we can prevent. night of this consideration, when we later on
speak of the physical causes that we can manage, we shall mean the damages of the natural
physical causes that we can minimize and the human-induced physical causes.
Second, the legal causes include existing laws of the land that have something to do with
the environment. They, however, also include the absence of laws that would effectively prohibit
practices damaging to the environment, and of legal mechanisms that would effectively punish
those violating existing environmental laws, especially those occupying positions of power such
as public officials and private corporations. The legal causes of the environmental crisis, in this
consideration, thus generally refer to those causes of the crisis that are within the control of the
government.
Third, the socioeconomic causes are factors that are brought about by social arrangements
and the economic status of human persons. Such causes include over-population, which naturally
results in the competition over limited resources, which in turn contributes to the depletion of these
resources.
They also include poverty. Because of poverty, people most often prefer cheap but non-
environment-friendly products and practices over expensive but environment-friendly products
and practices. In what follows, Jack Hollander, in his book The Real Environmental Crisis: Why
Poverty, Not Affluence, is the Environment's Number One Enemy (2003, 2), further explains why
poverty is a serious cause of the environmental crisis:
As people become more affluent, most become increasingly sensitive to the health and beauty
of their environment. And gaining affluence helps provide the economic means to protect and
enhance the environment... Poverty is the environmental villain; poor people are its victims.
Impoverished people often do plunder their resources, pollute their environment, and overcrowd
their habitats. They do these things not out of willful neglect but only out of the need to survive.
They are well aware of the environmental amenities that affluent people enjoy, but they also know
that for them the journey to a better environment will be long and that their immediate goal must
be to escape from the clutches of poverty. They cannot navigate this long journey without
assistance- assistance from generous institutions, nations, and individuals and from sincere and
effective policies of their own governments.
And fourth, the attitudinal causes refer to the beliefs and values held by humans about
nature that allow them or make it permissible for them to cause damages to the natural
environment. Examples of these beliefs are the following that natural resources are there simply
for human consumption or to satisfy human interests; that only humans can be recipients of moral
duties that natural resources are inexhaustible or are unlimited (some call this belief Frontierism),
and that we are only responsible for those parts of nature that are owned by humans or are

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governed by property rights of humans. in her book, Resurgence of the Real (1997, 219-220),
Charlene Spretnak identifies the following beliefs that support the industrial and agricultural
practices that exploit people and the environment (quoted in Coates 2003):
1. Homo Economicus: The belief that economic well-being is primary and will bring about
well-being in all other areas.
2. Progressivism: The belief that the human condition will gradually improve through
abundance. Included with this belief is an unquestioned trust that technology will solve all
human problems.
3. Industrialism: The belief that mass-production and rationally designed institutions and
programs are the best way to perfect human society and achieve the abundance needed
to sustain human consumption.
4. Consumerism: The belief that well-being is achieved through abundance and
consumption. The unquestioned acceptance of advertising and the near religious
dedication attached to shopping in 'Western' societies is the product of "the relentless
advertising campaigns designed to convince the society that there is
neither peace nor joy, neither salvation nor paradise, except through heightened
consumption." (Berry, 1988, 116). So successful is this campaign that humans appear
willing to exhaust the Earth's resources in order to satisfy their desires.

LESSON 4.3: FRUGALITY AND PRUDENCE – ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY

IN SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS.
One benefit of distinguishing these four types of causes of the environmental crisis
is that it gives us a working idea of which disciplines and institutions can properly address
which aspects of the said crisis. Let us st talk about the physical, legal, and socioeconomic
causes, as the attitudinal causes would first require some elaboration. The physical
causes, by virtue of their very nature, can properly be addressed by the various natural
sciences and technology-as these disciplines focus their studies on how physical
processes come about. The legal causes are, of course, properly addressed by the
government. The socioeconomic causes are properly addressed by the various social
sciences as these disciplines focus their studies on understanding how social and
economic processes come about Now as the socioeconomic and physical causes can be
influenced or regulated by the legal causes, the government can thus also address the
socioeconomic and physical causes via its agencies that manage the socioeconomic
needs of the people and the use and development of science and technology.
Turning now to the attitudinal causes, it will be recalled that they refer to our beliefs that
allow us or that make it permissible for us to do damages to the environment. Some of
these beliefs are metaphysical in that they claim something about what is true about
nature or the natural environment like the belief that nature is inexhaustible or that the

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natural resources are infinite. Some are moral like the belief that only humans have moral
rights and thus are the sole recipients of moral duties (or objects of moral concern), and
the belief that human well-being or happiness can be achieved through abundance and
consumption (consumerism).
As these causes involve human values, they are properly addressed by the humanities
and philosophy. The humanities can use various creative means, such as paintings, films,
and novels, to correct wrong beliefs and attitudes about the environment and generally to
increase awareness of the need to address the environmental crisis. Regarding
philosophy, as we have seen in Chapters 1 and 2, it is the one of the primary functions of
philosophy to determine the truth of our beliefs and examining whether they are justified.
Thus, with regard to the natural environment, the role of philosophy is to critically examine
the bases of the beliefs about the natural environment. More particularly, the role is to
determine whether these beliefs are correct, and then to distinguish which reflects about
the natural environment would lead humans to do damages to the environment and which
would not.
But how significant is this role of philosophy? This can be answered by examining how
the types of causes are related and the importance of the attitudinal causes relative to the
other types of causes. To begin with, 2 shall be observed that the physical causes are the
direct or immediate causes of the environmental crisis. Pollution, depletion of natural
resources, lack of trees, toxic substances emitted into the atmosphere, toxic chemical
wastes dumped into the ocean, and the like are what directly bring about the
environmental crisis. On the other hand, the other types of causes are the indirect causes
of the environmental crisis in that they are the ones that bring about the physical causes.
Pollution, for instance, is brought about by causes of the other types. The pollution of a
river, for instance, can be due to the absence of an effective law prohibiting the dumping
of wastes into that river. It can also be the result of some socioeconomic causes like when
people living near the river do not have the financial means to avail of mechanisms for
the proper disposal of their wastes. Finally, it can also be the result of some wrong
attitudes like the belief that there is nothing wrong in dumping wastes into the river
because nobody really owns the river and thus no property rights would be violated in the
process. In so far these physical causes are human-induced their occurrence necessarily
has legal, socioeconomic, and attitudinal factors. The reason is that human actions
operate within the context of these factors.

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Let us now examine the relationships among the indirect types of causes. It is quite clear
that the socioeconomic causes can themselves be caused by the legal causes, as laws
in a certain country can control or significantly affect the socioeconomic processes in that
country. Issues concerning poverty and overpopulation can be resolved by legal
interventions. For instance, as earlier noted, it is usually the case that the environment-
friendly products are more expensive than the nonenvironmental-friendly products. But
this need not necessarily be so if the government can make the appropriate interventions
in the economics of these products. A country may be economically poor, but this may
not be because it lacks natural resources. Such a country may intact pe blessed with rich
natural resources and the only reason why it is economically poor is that its government
fails to manage its resources well Contrast this to some countries that are not blessed
with rich natural resources and yet are doing well economically. Another, consider the
case of overpopulation it too can be resolved to a significant degree by legal means as
what has been done in some places where certain forms of family planning are legalized
and are actively promoted by the government.
Turning now to the attitudinal causes, these causes can be shown to be influencing the
other causes. First, the attitudinal causes, as we earlier noted already, can bring about
the physical causes. Pollution, for instance, can be due to the belief that since we are not
violating the property rights of some persons when we pollute the air and the oceans
(since the air and the oceans are not the properties of particular persons) then there is
nothing wrong in polluting the air and the oceans. Second, the attitudinal causes can bring
about the legal causes as well. For instance, the reason why there is an absence of a law
prohibiting companies from dumping their wastes into a river may be the belief that since
no property rights are violated in polluting the oceans and rivers there is thus no need to
come up with laws that will prohibit anyone from polluting the oceans and rivers. And third,
the attitudinal causes can also bring about the socioeconomic causes. For instance,
overpopulation may be a result of the belief that natural resources are unlimited such that
there will always be enough resources for humans.

In sum, we have shown that the role of philosophy is to address the attitudinal
causes of the environmental crisis, primarily to determine whether the beliefs that lead to
practices that damage the environment are true and justified. Furthermore, we have
shown that this role of philosophy is a crucial one for the attitudinal causes can influence
the other kinds of causes.

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