Ethics and Environmental Ethics

Paper Summary:

This paper defines ethics and explains some of the different viewpoints on ethics that exist. The paper then gives a critical view of ethics. Next, it discusses Aldo Leopold's land ethic. The paper concludes that there are many different opposing viewpoints in ethics and every person must make up their own ethics by which to live.

Table of Contents:
How do we Define Ethics?
A complicated System of Groups
Ethical Theories
Deontological Versus Teleological Theories
Every Situation is Different
The Critical View of Ethics
The Never Ending Story
Ethics as a Limiting Factor
Ethics as Propaganda
Ethics and the Environment
Aldo Leopold's Ethics
Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic
Conclusion
In the Literature
The Rose Theory

From the Paper:

"In order to discuss ethics, one must first attempt to understand the intricacies involved in this discipline. First, a distinction must be made between ethics and morality. "Ethical wisdom consists in knowing how to frame the ideal, and moral sagacity consists in knowing how to put the ideal to work and realize it in practice" (Rader 1964). In other words, ethics may be thought of as the theory by which morality is practiced. Although separate ideas, neither morality nor ethics can exist without the other. Once this distinction is made, the question must be asked, is ethics a science? Researchers have long tried to answer this question, and many have come to the following conclusion. It is believed that ethics is a "normative science: concerned with norms and standards not empirical facts" (Rader 1964)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Arnhart L. 1998. Darwinian natural right: the biological ethics of human nature. State University of New York Press, Albany, New York. 232 p.
• Bradley FH. 1927. Ethical studies. Second edition. Oxford University Press, London. 344 p.
• Curtler HM. 1993. Ethical argument: critical thinking in ethics. Paragon House Press, New York. 150 p.
• Fletcher J. 1966. Situation ethics. Westminster Press, Philadelphia.
• Johnson OA. 1958. Ethics: a source book. The Dtyden Press, New York. 549 p.

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