Environmental Ethics and the Anthropocentric and Biocentric Value Systems

Environmental Ethics
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Environmental Ethics
Question 1
Routley's article shows that individuals should be allowed to perform their desired actions as long as they do not cause harm to others and themselves. Failing to harm others (human beings) requires the suffering of non-humans affected. The last man example is negative as there is a recognizable fixed Western ethical system, showing that it is an unacceptable principle. The Western ethical view is inconsistent with an environmental ethic because it asserts that nature is man's dominion and that he can do whatever he wants (Routley, 1973). Since the identity of ethical systems is because of the identity of the fundamental principles, to search for a motive to scrap a key principle of any system involves looking for a reason to discard the system itself and a motive to scrap any family of such systems. Moreover, if the Western super ethic is supposed to be rejected due to the last man's work, then the last man has performed in logical breath to validate the importance of a new ethic.
Additionally, the last man, to some levels, works because what the last man did is incorrect and on environmental grounds. Conversely, how the last man works is all we know about the new ethic. It is clear that in a similar work, Routley purports that the ethic fails to commit a person to the view that natural things like trees possess rights, although he wishes this on the ground that is extraneous to how the last man example requires work.
The last man example can be extended to the last people instance. Assuming that the last people know, they are the last people; for example, they understand the radiation effects have hindered any possibility of reproduction, assuming the last people are many. These people humanely exterminate all wild animals, eliminate all fishes in the sea, put the land under intensive cultivation, and utilize the remaining part of the forest for plantation and quarries (Routley, 1973). They can argue that this is the best way possible to salvation, or they satisfy sensible requirements. It may be important to ensure the last people remain employed to avoid worrying about their impending extinction.
Based on the environmental ethic, the last people have misbehaved because they have destroyed every natural ecosystem, and with such disappearance, the world will be ugly and exhausted. Understanding the last people instance should be rejected because it does not mention any motivating bitterness toward the last people. Both the last man and last people cases demonstrate the freedom principle as insufficient, showing basic chauvinism to be insufficient. Thus, these individuals favor themselves, w...