"Intergenerational Justice and the Chain of Obligation"
Humans must define and carry out a way of life so that each generation can fulfill and forward their obligation to their children while enjoying a favourable way of life themselves.
Humans must define and carry out a way of life so that each generation can fulfill and forward their obligation to their children while enjoying a favourable way of life themselves.
Does it make sense to say that one should not, or ought not, take pleasure in certain objects or events within the natural environment? Cheryl Foster explores ethical constraints on aesthetic activity and appreciation.
The anthropocentric ethic implicit in all solutions regarding global commons is contrasted with the ecocentric one which may be necessary to preserve the biosphere in the future.
The article explores the possibilities of a new ethic that incorporates the phenomenon of environmental crisis and aims at changing people’s outlooks and behaviour.
An evolutionary analysis of history suggests that technology and morality can and will respond to a clearly perceived future threat to civilization. But will our response be fast enough?
Markus Peterson and Tarla Rai Peterson outline the history of valuation techniques using the Exxon Valdez disaster response and the valuation of whooping cranes as examples of how these tools can constrain policy, presenting an ethical dilemma for democracies by naturalizing, then ethicizing, existing patterns of domination.
Laura Westra discusses environmental holism in relation to the democratic rights of individuals and of nation states within the international community.
Paul Craig, Harold Glasser, and Willett Kempton interview senior policy advisors to four European governments active in global climate change negotiations and the UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) process.
Alan MacQuillan discusses the advent of new forestry in the United States as representing a traumatic shift in the philosophy of national forestry praxis, a broadening of values to include aesthetics and sustainability of natural ecological process.
Eric Katz examines and compares the ontological and axiological character of artefacts—human creations—with nonhuman natural entities.