Ethics and Sustainability: Sustainable Development and the Moral Life / Edition 1

by Lisa Newton Ph.D.

Overview

This straightforward book is the only one of its kind to join the literature of environmental ethics to the literature of applied ethics—to describe a life lived in harmony with itself, with society, and with the natural world. KEY TOPICS: Its three chapters focus on morality, technology, and stewardship while encouraging readers to explore a single virtue that will encompass all the requirements of the ethical life and save the environment at the same time. MARKET: For humans who want to live good and fulfilling lives without compromising the ability of the other species on the planet to do the same.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780130617965
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	04/19/2002
Series:	Basic Ethics in Action Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

Lisa H. Newton is Director of the Program in Applied Ethics, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

1. Morality: Environmental Ethics as Virtue.


2. Technology: Living Lightly Up on the Earth.


3. Stewardship: The Responsible Person.

Preface

Since the advent of environmental philosophy—sentimentally dated to the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 and actually in existence since the first Earth Day in 1970—we have wanted to join the swift-flowing pragmatic and political streams of environmentalism with the broad river of ethical theory, especially in its "applied" mode. My previous work, in both ethics and environmental philosophy, positions me well to attempt such a confluence. I would not be working alone: The courses that such a joining would take have been emerging in the literature (especially in the pages of the journal Environmental Ethics) for several years. Michael Boylan's invitation to me to contribute a work on Environmental Sustainability to his Basic Ethics in Action series broke through the hard shell of my laziness and set me to work on bringing the streams together.

I believe that this volume is the first attempt at tracing the two streams to their juncture and mapping the course of the river from that point forward. I am grateful to Michael Boylan for goading me into action on the subject, very grateful to Rocky Mountain Institute for permission to quote at length from their publication, Natural Capitalism, and infinitely grateful to my family and colleagues for their patience as this work ground on to its completion.

Lisa H. Newton