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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1994

Richard A. Gray

Plato and Aristotle would have found the modern effort to fuse ethics and ecology to be incomprehensible. Despite the fact that oikos—meaning house or household—is a Greek word…

Abstract

Plato and Aristotle would have found the modern effort to fuse ethics and ecology to be incomprehensible. Despite the fact that oikos—meaning house or household—is a Greek word, Greek science did not entertain a concept of ecology. Nor did Greek philosophy regard nature as morally considerable. Etymology aside, the word ecology in anything like its modern sense of “biospheric house” did not appear in European thought until 1873 when Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German biologist and philosopher, used it, with the spelling “Oekologie,” in his The History of Creation. Furthermore, the words “ecology” and “ecological” always had exclusive reference, until quite recently, to a scientific discipline and not to a branch of philosophy. As with the Classical Greek philosophers, so it was also with modern thinkers. Ethics, they held, were concerned solely with interpersonal relations. They could not, therefore, recognize a duty to nature. That we do owe a duty to nature, however, is the carefully considered conclusion of most of the environmental ethicists.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 24 November 2022

Sara Camacho-de la Parra, Florina Guadalupe Arredondo-Trapero, Eva María Guerra-Leal and José Carlos Vázquez-Parra

This article aims to analyze the anthropocentrism vs ethics of care positions of a group of undergraduate students at a private university in Mexico to test gender variable…

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to analyze the anthropocentrism vs ethics of care positions of a group of undergraduate students at a private university in Mexico to test gender variable differences in their perspectives. There are two hypotheses: (1) there is a statistically significant difference between male and female genders related to anthropocentrism vs ethics of care positions, and if so, (2) the differences are attributable to women having a more ethics of care position than men. Participants were 561 undergraduate students from a private university in Mexico (257 female, 304 male). The findings demonstrated that both hypotheses were supported by the ethics of care, where the individual rights perspective is set aside to seek collective and holistic well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

T-tests were performed to test gender differences in anthropocentrism and ethics of care.

Findings

The results showed statistical differences based on gender (sig.000) and that women are less anthropocentric (or more oriented toward an ethics of care than men (female:1.64 and male:1.94). Ethics of care of female position is more defined than that of men. As a conclusion, men are more oriented to anthropocentrism, which reflects a lack of environmental connection by not assuming themselves as part of it and by defending the right of resources exploitation. On the contrary, women tend to respond from an ethic of care that means a more harmonious relationship with nature. In addition, women tend to assume a relationship with the environment, without hierarchy or supremacy towards it, and tend to reject the demand for the exploitation of the planet's resources as part of a right that human beings have historically assumed.

Research limitations/implications

One of the limitations of this study is that it has been carried out in a university educational context with exclusively undergraduate students. It would be interesting to validate these anthropocentric vs ethics of care positions in different university groups, including professors and academic managers. Studying this concept in diverse contexts such as business, government and civil society would also be engaging. In addition, the authors recognize that the study is limited by its small population, which means that a balance between men and women or disciplines could not be guaranteed. However, the authors believe that although the results may not be considered exhaustive or conclusive, the results shed light for possible new studies in which the population is expanded. This is an exploratory study.

Practical implications

These results have practical implications for universities. In the classroom and in the university environment, students can learn to question the way they relate to the environment. Anthropocentrism (more accentuated in men) is assumed to be separate from the environment and with the right to its exploitation. Contrary to anthropocentrism, it is necessary to explore other positions such as the ethics of care or feminine ethics, more pronounced in women. Universities can develop environmental sustainability projects under the leadership of women, without claiming to be exclusive to them. In this way, the ethic of care approach can be put into practice and thus begin the necessary change for a new environmental relationship perspective.

Originality/value

Universities are required to provide an educational orientation towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) particularly those that respond to the climate crisis. To this end, it is necessary to promote a new environmental awareness that critically question anthropocentric models based on the supremacy over the environment. The ethics of care or feminine ethics, contrary to the previous position, assumes that the person is part of the environment and is oriented to its care and healing of the damage caused to restore this network of the human being with nature. The originality of this study lies in demonstrating how women exhibit a different relationship with the environment, oriented to the ethics of care, and how their posture shows a difference with anthropocentrism, which is stronger in men.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 15 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Philosophy of Management and Sustainability: Rethinking Business Ethics and Social Responsibility in Sustainable Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-453-9

Book part
Publication date: 24 August 2005

Takao Takahashi

Bioethics and environmental ethics have been largely separated, in principle. However, the two types of ethics do overlap when dealing with significant issues such as human…

Abstract

Bioethics and environmental ethics have been largely separated, in principle. However, the two types of ethics do overlap when dealing with significant issues such as human embryos, animal experimentation, and responsibility to future generations. In this paper, the possibility of synthesizing these two ethics through the concept of care is considered. Accordingly, the range of the object of the concept of care is similarly broadened. Moreover, after considering the serious defects of care-based theory, a care-based position, which regards human rights or their substitute as a complement to care, is advanced. This position can be said to be a Japanese approach to bioethics.

Details

Taking Life and Death Seriously - Bioethics from Japan
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-206-1

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2004

C.J. de Villiers

The environment is an important business issue and it will be even more so in future. Environmental reporting nowadays features increasingly in annual reports and elsewhere. It is…

Abstract

The environment is an important business issue and it will be even more so in future. Environmental reporting nowadays features increasingly in annual reports and elsewhere. It is however not compulsory and corporate decision makers must therefore make a decision for or against such reporting. Ethics is at stake in any decision involving right or wrong. Ethical theory is therefore examined in an effort to establish whether environmental reporting should be done. It is concluded that corporate environmental reporting constitutes the ethical high road.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1022-2529

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1997

A.E. Hohl and C.A. Tisdell

During the very short period of cultural evolution of mankind, the world has changed dramatically. Modern humans have modified the environment not only to satisfy their needs, but…

Abstract

During the very short period of cultural evolution of mankind, the world has changed dramatically. Modern humans have modified the environment not only to satisfy their needs, but also to please their greed. The forces that are united to destroy the last wildlands for short‐term economic benefits seem to be overwhelming. However, at least in some developed countries, values, preferences and political majorities have been changing over the last two decades in favour of alternative approaches. A new multiplicity of goals has sprung up, and it will not be an easy task to reconcile the diverging interests. What makes it even more difficult is that the means, by which the different goals are to be achieved, are barely known. The scientists, whose task might be to provide tools of measurement to enable political decision‐makers to set priorities, are facing serious methodological problems. Economists have not yet found practical and acceptable ways of valuing all commodities, biologists have not yet come up with proven environmental safety standards and sociologists and philosophers are far from providing a satisfactory method of integrating environmental values into the ‘social contract’.

Details

Humanomics, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0828-8666

Book part
Publication date: 6 September 2017

Daniel Deak

The essence of the ecological crisis is not that resources are out of reach, but that the relationship between living beings has deteriorated. For this reason, ecology cannot…

Abstract

The essence of the ecological crisis is not that resources are out of reach, but that the relationship between living beings has deteriorated. For this reason, ecology cannot simply be seen as a scientific matter but rather as a genuine social problem that requires social actions.

The law in its present form falls short of managing ecological problems despite the fact that the right to a natural environment is recognized in most jurisdictions as a basic one and that international covenants have been created to protect the natural environment. Environmental law ought to bring about a reverence for life and promote the cooperation of biotic communities. A legal system given to innovation could offer foresight-based regulation, integration of the ensemble of living beings, and cooperation in the living world. One of the main challenges the law has to meet is the exploration of a theoretically established and practically viable basis for extending its influence to address the problems of future generations.

Details

Integral Ecology and Sustainable Business
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-463-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 July 2020

Gema Varona

This chapter aims to rethink how gender inequality is related to interpersonal and structural asymmetries of power displayed in our relationships with ecosystems, questioning the…

Abstract

This chapter aims to rethink how gender inequality is related to interpersonal and structural asymmetries of power displayed in our relationships with ecosystems, questioning the classical concept of ‘nature’ as something ‘out there’, as pointed out by dark ecology. First, with the aim of offering a joint North–South critical perspective on equality and sustainability, critical ecofeminism, through the work of A. Puleo, will be explained as a Spanish feminist line of thought and movement. This author, rejecting some essentialist visions of deep ecology, sets her ideas in relation to general critical social theory. Second, contrasting perspectives (critical feminism and ecology) will be combined to offer a rich cross-fertilisation between different perspectives and traditional themes in criminology. A common denominator can be found in the exercise of criticism through questioning binary categories, underlying assumptions and social injustice in relation to the visibility of harms. Third, the relevance of ecofeminism for current criminological debates will be highlighted beyond the obvious connections with green victimology. Finally, ecofeminism will be interpreted as a new critical standpoint and as a more inclusive language for fostering the criminological and victimological imagination in order to help to rethink the rules of the criminal justice system.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Feminism, Criminology and Social Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-956-4

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2019

Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

Abstract

Details

Philosophy of Management and Sustainability: Rethinking Business Ethics and Social Responsibility in Sustainable Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-453-9

Abstract

Details

Sustainability Marketing
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-244-7

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