Environmental Virtue Education: Ancient Wisdom Applied

The focus of environmental philosophy has thus far heavily depended on the extension of rights to nonhuman nature. Due to inherent difficulties with this approach to environmental problems, I propose a shift from the contemporary language of rights and duties to the concept of character development. I claim that a theory of environmental virtue ethics can circumvent many of the difficulties arising from the language of rights, duties, and moral claims by emphasizing the cultivation of certain dispositions in the individual moral agent. In this thesis, I examine the advantages of virtue ethics over deontological and utilitarian theories to show the potential of developing an ecological virtue ethic. I provide a preliminary list of ecological virtues by drawing on Aristotle's account of traditional virtues as well as on contemporary formulations of environmental virtues. Then, I propose that certain types of rules (rules of thumb) are valuable for the cultivation of environmental virtues, since they affect the way the moral agent perceives a particular situation. Lastly, I offer preliminary formulations of these rules of thumb.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2005

Author dc:creator

• Lindemann, Monica A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hargrove, Eugene C., 1944-
• James, George A.
• Yaffe, Martin D.

• Environmental ethics -- Study and teaching.
• Virtue -- Study and teaching.
• rights and duties
• environmental ethics
• virtue ethics
• moral perception

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Lindemann, Monica A.
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 68181960
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4859/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc4859

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc4859