This week in PHIL 355 class, we focus our discussion on ecocentrism. Unlike the biocentrists we learned last week, ecocentrists believe humans have duties to individual living beings and have responsibilities to collectives like ecosystems and species. In this blog, I will discuss some ecocentrism ideas introduced in the reading “The Land Ethic” by Aldo Leopold.
The Community Concept
In “The land Ethic,” Aldo Leopold suggests an extension of ethical consideration to environmental communities， he argues that “a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land community to plain member and citizen of it.” He used southwestern Wisconsin’s topsoil slipping case in 1930 as a call for ethical change. In that case, the local farmers only acted based on their self-interest but ignored government and scientists’ suggestion and eventually led to floods in 1937. Thus, he argues we must have “internal change in our intellectual emphasis loyalties, affections, and convictions.” in other words, is to “love, respect, and admiration for land.” （Aldo Leopold, 1948）
Leopold’s Land Ethic is a sentiment-based ethics system. However, an Ethical system based on human emotions may have sufficient motivation, but it does not provide consistent guidance for people to take the right action in environmental problems. I think Leopold missed emphasize Knowledge or science as an essential foundation of ethics. Knowledge can change people’s perceptions. With a better understanding of the ecosystem, we are now more aware of the critical role nature plays in our community. We know that ecosystem produces irreplaceable clean water and air; it also generates food and recycles our waste in the circulation process. To understand that living or non-living being in an ecosystem is so closely related to our life will automatically generate a sense of responsibility or ethic towards the environmental communities. Because to harm the ecosystem in someone’s interests will consider harming the public interests, it is a fundamental moral standard not to benefit oneself at others’ expense. Also, increasing Knowledge about ecosystems will help us develop an increasingly accurate ethics system applicable to situations with different cultural backgrounds (Erbaugh, James Thomas, 2008)
Principle of Land ethic
A vital land ethic principle suggested by Leopold is that “a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity stability and beauty of the biotic community it’s wrong when it tends other ones.” Indeed, Leopold is right that we should “quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem” and be more cautious about human activities that impact ecosystems. But to judge every human activity that disturbs nature as wrong will be too strict and impossible to engage. First, the concept of integrity, stability, and beauty needs to be clarified. The integrity and stability of ecosystems are continually changing; human activities can be considered wrong when it causes Irreversible trauma like massive species extinction and large habitat loss (Fill in the lake, Use herbicide or insecticides on a large scale). Some necessary human activities that bring relatively less and reversible disturb the ecosystem should be acceptable in the Land ethic system. Secondly, the principle should indicate it only judges human activities; I am not sure if Leopold only refers to human activities when he talks about “a thing.” Otherwise, natural disasters like forest fire, earthquake, and tsunami will be considered bad things humans need to prevent(which we can not ). Thus, I believe a more proper way to put the principle is, “Human activity is right when it only causes reversible distortion to the ecosystem’s small scale; it’s wrong when it tends to other ones. ”
Dengnan Chen
References
Erbaugh, J. (2008). Understanding the Land Ethic. (Electronic Thesis or Dissertation). Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/
Aldo Leopold(1948). The Land Ethic. (Electronic Thesis). Retrieved from http://www.neohasid.org/pdf/landethic.pdf