My Ethics Views – ljs5300

Do ecosystems matter for their own sake, or do they only matter to the extent that they impact humans (ecocentric ethics vs. anthropocentric ethics)?

Ecosystems I believe only matter to the extent that they impact humans. I hold this view because everything that we use and make comes from this earth. Our government runs on consumerism. Everything we use today  from food, materials, and technology all of it comes eventually from natural resources. So if your asking if my ethics on this topic are more anthropocentric your exactly right. Our government I believe is more growth and profit than being sustainable and environmentally friendly. Now some ecosystems I feel we have more ecocentric ethics about are state forests and national parks. Maybe these places are protected because of the species and quality of the land. But maybe these places are protected because eventually one day we will use them for resources anyway if we run out. But maybe its up to us or the next generation to come to have more ecocentric views on the environment and our society. I think it will be up to us to change these views on the environments and ecosystems and teach and educate people that our “green” places or environmentally safe places of the world are more important and essential to our lives more than we even realize.

Do the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans (speciesism)?

The pleasure and pain of non-human animals does not matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans. I hold this view because we eat almost every kind of animal that lives on this planet. We breed animals to make pets and we breed animals to kill and make food. We pretty much do whatever we want with animals with really no consequences. Now think if non-human animals were treated or could be governed under the same set of rules as humans. What if you would get a murder charge for killing an animal? That would never happen because we see that the human life is more important than the non-human animals life. What if non-human animals were just as smart or intelligent as us. Would they breed us, use us as pets, kill us for sport, use us as food? Sounds kind of brutal when you look at it from the other point of view. So I believe that speciesism exist and we are just the animal at the top of the food chain. So we are just looking out for ourselves. But when we don’t need to be so environmentally destructive and we know some species could be extinct forever we need to take control and be more responsible for the species we have on this earth. Cause I believe that all species play their part in our environmental society.

Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)?

I think its important to be both equally a good person and to perform good acts. I hold this view because to even begin to perform a good act I believe you already have to have some good in you. To perform a good act I feel your mentality is already in a good place, and maybe your thinking of the future outcome hoping it will end on a positive note. I think it’s a good thing to share and spread your virtues with others. For example if you let people know how much you care for the environment maybe there virtues will change to be the same and maybe even get them to take some action. Performing good acts or taking action can also hopefully get more people to make a physical difference but also get people to change theres virtues for the better. I think virtues and actions just work side by side together. If you are a bad person you will probably perform bad actions. So virtues and actions are leading to one another. It is important to have good virtues and actions so then you can see the end result or hypothesize on it to make sure its in the best interest for everyone. So to have a positive end result we need to start first with a good positive thought or virtue we have, share it, talk about it, however we can make it become a good idea or a topic for change for the better. Then once we have that we can take action and perform what our good thoughts and virtues are into a physical sense to show and spread the virtues we believe in. This is why i think we need virtue and action ethics equally.

2 thoughts on “My Ethics Views – ljs5300

  1. Hi, Lucas,

    Very interesting perspective with your anthropocentric view. Your points are quite valid with respect to our government, and you also bring up an extremely thought provoking point about our state forests and national parks perhaps being used for resource harvesting in later years (perhaps decades, or centuries). Currently, we are in the Green Revolution, and teaching our society about the impacts of overuse of the environment around us could be costly. I could not agree more. Very interesting points of view!

    – Harrison

  2. Hi! Here is a link to my profile! https://wp.me/p3RCAy-beq

    While reading your blog, I was really interested in your last answer to the question about whether it is better to be a good person or perform good acts. I also answered this question, but I thought about it in a different way. I really like the way you mentioned that being both a good person and performing good acts could cause a positive outcome on someone. I agree with you when you stated that virtues and actions lead into each other. It interests me that you are firmly stuck in the middle of virtue and actions, but I do not think that is a bad thing at all.

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