Ecological Ethics by Patrick Curry

Discussion of articles that appear in the magazine.

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Post Reply
Philosophy Now
Posts: 1205
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:49 am

Ecological Ethics by Patrick Curry

Post by Philosophy Now »

Vincent Di Norcia looks at various approaches to ecological ethics.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/122/Ecological_Ethics_by_Patrick_Curry
d63
Posts: 755
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2014 4:55 pm

Re: Ecological Ethics by Patrick Curry

Post by d63 »

After reading Vincent Di Norcia's review of Patrick Curry's Ecological Ethics, and having noted its focus on population growth, I can't help but go back to one of my favorite quotes by either Russell or Whitehead (I can't remmember which):

"Humble yourself or the world will do it for you."

And it takes a kind of arrogance (anthropocentrism in the terminology of the article (to think we can even begin to deal with any of our problems until we deal with the issue of population growth. Not only do we have thinkers like Greg IP, in his Little Brown Book of Economics, arguing that a strong economy is dependent on population growth, but we also have more well intended intellectuals arguing that the earth can sustain more than we have if we just used our resources right.

No! No! And NO again. The truth is that we cannot even begin to deal with any of our problems until we deal with population growth.

Yet we go on as if the earth exists for the sake of human existence when, in fact, we are merely a part of a system from which we benefit. And nothing illustrates this better than the nonsense of the religious right. Granted, we can sympathize with them to some extent on the issue of abortion. I, myself, am uncomfortable with the termination of any life form. But that's not my choice to make; it's the woman's who has to deal with it. And our population issue is bad enough without forcing women to bring unwanted children into the equation. But let's agree that if we came to a world in which no woman had to make that dreadful choice (and that is how most of them experience it), the world would be a better place. The problem is that the religious right is also against the very thing that could prevent the need for abortion: birth control. This is why gag orders on foreign aid as concerns birth control are so odious as well as arrogant.

They're just stuck in the arrogance of thinking the earth exists for our purposes: for the propagation of the human species. And such arrogance can only be met with extermination.
Impenitent
Posts: 4329
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:04 pm

Re: Ecological Ethics by Patrick Curry

Post by Impenitent »

extermination?

probably by our own hands as well...

-Imp
Post Reply