University:
Manchester University
Course:
PHIL 201 | Introduction to Philosophy
Academic year:

2023
Views:

170

Pages:

10
Author:

StellarSymphony

The Land Ethic Leopold’s “Ethical Sequence” Aldo Leopold 1887-1948 “The first ethics dealt with the relation between individuals. […] Later accretions dealt with the relation between the individual and society. […] There is as yet no ethic dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it. […] The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” Moral Extensionism: At first I value only myself. Then I extend my moral community to include my family, then my neighbors, then all human beings, then animals, then plants, and finally the dirt itself. Is this what Leopold is doing? Discuss with your Neighbors What has value? (…for Leopold? …for you?) (How did it acquire value?) (Why is it valuable?) Where does value come from? Leopold’s “Land Ethic” (1949) “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” Getting to the Land Ethic “It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value.” – Aldo Leopold, “The Outlook” The Alhambra (Granada, Spain) Kinds of Value How we value X: • final (to value X for its own sake) • instrumental (to value X for the sake of something else) The source of X’s value: • intrinsic (X’s value comes from within) • extrinsic (X’s value comes from something else) The Moral Value Square Atomistic (value resides in the well-being of the individual) Anthropocentric (value resides in human beings only; the non-human world has only instrumental value for humans) All value resides in the human individual [Kant] All value resides in the well-being of the human community. All value resides in the living individual. [Singer, Regan, Goodpaster] All value resides in the well being the biotic community. (ecocentric ethics) [Muir, Leopold, Naess] Biocentric (value resides in all living things) Holistic (value resides in the well-being of the community) Final: to value X for its own sake Instrumental: to value X for the sake of something else. Intrinsic: X’s value comes from within. Extrinsic: X’s value comes from something else. Callicott on the Land Ethic (1987) Leopold’s Land Ethic in Twelve Easy Steps 1. Early responses to Leopold 2. Moral progress (in practice, in consciousness) 3. The origin of ethics 4. Moral considerability and community 5. Elton’s biotic community 6. Conceptual foundations of the land ethics 7. Moral extensionism: I → Other 8. Moral extensionism: Atomism → Holism 9. Ecology 10. Practical principles of the land ethic 11. Fairness and human ethics 12. Land ethic as “concentric circles of obligations” Callicott on the Land Ethic 1. Early responses to Leopold … were not helpful.

The Land Ethic

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