Ethics and Values

INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES INVOLVING ETHICS AND JUSTICE – Vol.III – Ethics and Values - Robert Elliot

ETHICS AND VALUES
Robert Elliot
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Keywords: meta-ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics, ethics, values, sustainability, human-centered ethics, psychocentric ethics, biocentric ethics, intrinsic value.
Contents

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1. Introduction
2. Meta-Ethics, Normative Ethics, and Applied Ethics
3. Reason and Objectivity in Judgments about Ethics and Values
4. Ethics, Values, and Sustainability
4.1 Self Interest
4.2 Ethical Considerability and Ethical Significance
4.3 Good and Better, Bad and Worse
5. Varieties of Ethics
5.1 Human-Centered Ethics
5.2 Psychocentric Ethics
5.3 Biocentric Ethics
5.4 The Everything Ethic
5.5 Ecological Holism
5.6 Choosing Between Ethics and Values
5.7 Deciding What Has Intrinsic Value
6. Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Biographical Sketch
Summary

This essay distinguishes three main areas in ethics: meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. It introduces some basic concepts, including the concepts of ethical considerability and ethical significance, that are useful in thinking about ethics and values and discusses the kinds of moves that feature in rational adjudication of conflicts about ethics and values. The essay shows how rational objectivity can assist the resolution of disagreements about ethics and values. The discussion is conducted in the context of issues arising in environmental ethics, since it is in this domain that many of the concerns relevant to sustainability arise. Various types of environmental ethic are next described and discussed. In the process, key concepts to do with ethics and values are introduced and the styles of argument that are deployed for and against these ethics are described. The emphasis is not on justifying particular conclusions: it

Bibliography: Dower N. (1999). World Ethics: the New Agenda. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [Innovative discussion of ways of thinking about ethics and values in the context of international and global Mackie J. (1977). Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. Harmondsworth: Penguin. [Seminal treatment of issues to do with subjectivity, objectivity, and reason in ethics.] Rolston III H. (1988). Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World. Philadelphia: Temple University Press Rachels J. ed. (1993). The Elements of Moral Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill. [Good selection of essays introducing concepts in moral philosophy.] Singer P. (1993). Practical Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Excellent introduction to the methods of applied ethics, with an emphasis on a consequentialist approach.] Singer P. ed. (1991). A Companion to Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell. [Comprehensive set of articles providing a contemporary introduction to key issues in meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics.] Sylvan R. and Bennett D. (1994). The Greening of Ethics: from Human Chauvinism to Deep-Green Theory