PHIL 2070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Land Ethic, Social Contract, Negative And Positive Rights

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 2070
• Professor: Karen Houle

Document Summary

Phil 2070 philosophy of the environment: week 4. Aldo leopold"s (cid:862)the land ethi(cid:272)(cid:863: main steps. Evolution in ethics from state of nature i. e. (cid:862)a(cid:374)i(cid:373)al i(cid:374)sti(cid:374)(cid:272)t(cid:863) & (cid:862)(cid:272)o(cid:373)petitio(cid:374)| to social cooperation. Ethics has emerged from social cooperation: social contract theory is how ethics has moved. But land is left out of the deal; and hu(cid:373)a(cid:374)s a(cid:396)e (cid:862)plai(cid:374) (cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:271)e(cid:396)s(cid:863) Is(cid:374)"t pa(cid:396)t(cid:455) to a(cid:374) ag(cid:396)ee(cid:373)e(cid:374)t a(cid:271)out (cid:396)ight a(cid:374)d (cid:449)(cid:396)o(cid:374)g: (cid:862)histo(cid:396)(cid:455) is d(cid:396)i(cid:448)e(cid:374) (cid:271)(cid:455) the (cid:395)ualit(cid:455) of the la(cid:374)d that (cid:449)e li(cid:448)e o(cid:374)(cid:863) Humans have overstated what they are able to do without land. Economic values (profit) dominate our landscape of values: If you want a problem to be solved, put a price on it. Integrity, stability and beauty need to be added into our view about right and wrong: also principle of justice. John rawls (social contract theorist) argues that other values are possible, but justice is the fundamental value that can be reached through a social contract theory.