This paper will look at how the ethical theory of Utilitarianism applies to the problem of deforestation. I will argue that Utilitarianism is a sufficient theory when applied to the social problem of deforestation because Utilitarianism succeeds in distinguishing between different forms of pleasures that will be of most benefit for the common good, which is integral to defending the cessation of deforestation.
Deforestation is the immense and damaging cutting down of trees all around the world. Deforestation is a social problem because there are many who support the continuation of the cutting down of these trees because they maintain it allows for necessary resources, while others argue that it negatively affects the environment.
Jeremy
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Bentham is credited with introducing the Utilitarianism theory, and was then followed by John Stuart Mill who further expanded the theory. The idea that encompasses the prime ideals of Utilitarianism, is that of the Greatest Happiness Principle, which in Mill’s words is “ actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (643). In other words, an action is justified as long as it produces the most happiness and evades the most pain for the greatest amount of people. As Utilitarian advocates, both Bentham and Mill shared similar ideals of what Utilitarianism stood for, however there are some distinctions in the way they analyze certain aspects of the theory. Bentham states that, “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure” (1). These two, pain and pleasure, then are said to govern all that one chooses to do, including the idea of deciding between what is wrong and what is right. Additionally, Bentham includes the principle of utility in his work to further explain his theory. Utility, is simply a term that encompasses a broad range of ideas such as: “to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness… or… to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness” (Bentham, 2). Therefore, the Principle of Utility outlines whether an action is acceptable depending on how efficiently it produces happiness to a particular person or to a larger group. Jeremy Bentham further expands on utility by explaining that there is certain criterion to identify the value of utility. He lists, intensity, duration, certainty or uncertainty, its propinquity or remoteness when one is “estimating a pleasure or a pain considered by itself” (29) and further adds fecundity and purity when “estimating the tendency of an act by which it’s produced” (29). Bentham continues by stating that the extent, or the amount of people it will affect is also used for determining the value of utility. One then must calculate how great, how long, the probability, the time needed for the happiness to occur, if the pleasure will lead to other pleasure, the purity of the pleasure, and the amount of people it affects to arrive at the value of the pleasure. This type of calculation, focused on identifying the amount of utility, is also known as Hedonistic Calculus. Jeremy Bentham constructed the foundation for Utilitarianism with these ideas, and John Stuart Mill, appreciating Bentham’s work further expanded the theory. In his work titled, Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill proposed another look into identifying what types of pleasures one should be aiming for. Mill distinguished pleasures by identifying them as higher or lower pleasures. The basis for distinguishing between pleasure according to Mill is that, “Human beings have faculties more elevated than the animal appetites, and, when once made conscious of them, do not regard any thing as happiness which does not include gratification” (643). Simply stated, it takes far more to satisfy a human than it does an animal, because humans have abilities that an animal does not posses, such as advanced intellect. Furthermore, Mill makes a connection to Bentham Utilitarian methods of analyzing utilities, by stating, “It is quite compatible with the principle of utility to recognize the fact that some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable than others” (644). He believes that quality is of equal if not more important than quantity. Mill is highly preoccupied with intellectual pleasures over rudimentary pleasures such as overindulging on delicacies, as expressed in “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than pig satisfied, better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” (Mill 644) The Utilitarian point of view is used in various instances of day-to-day lives in order to identify the meaning of pleasures and its outcome, and can similarly be applied to the social problem of deforestation. Utilitarianism can be easily applied to the problem of deforestation as it is a social problem and consequently affects society. In a Utilitarian point of view, deforestation is a social problem that should cease to exist. According to Utilitarianism, a fundamental idea that should always be kept in mind to deciding ones actions is to produce the greatest happiness, or good, for the greatest amount of people. The rapid deforestation all around the world is contributing to the immense amounts of CO2 being released into the air, which then consequently leads to global warming. This in turn affects the general population as a whole. Using the hedonistic calculus would also showcase that ending deforestation would be of greater benefit than if it were to continue. Adding all of the uses, then subtracting the massive effects it would have on not only the people currently inhabiting earth but those of the future would equate to more loss than gain when it comes to the issue of deforestation. In a Bentham Utilitarian perspective, which entails that one should strive to create more happiness than pain the ending of deforestation would highly avoid pain.
For one, deforestation puts many animals’ lives at risk, which can unfortunately lead to extinction. These animals would then be exposed to less pain and more happiness. In a Mill perspective animals, are probably not of first priority, as he believes humans are superior. However, there are many individuals around the world who advocate for animal rights and the reduction of deforestation to ensure these animals have a stable habitat to call their home is what ultimately brings them great joy. Additionally, there are people who find great gratification in protecting the planet they call home. Evidently, Utilitarianism is capable of supporting the cessation of deforestation, but there are some who argue that deforestation is …show more content…
necessary. Deforestation with a doubt is continued to be practiced because some find it to be productive and necessary. In a Utilitarian perspective many find happiness due to deforestation. Primarily, there are those that take physical part in the cutting down of trees, such as loggers. It is their source of income, a way to sustain their families, income that therefore brings them happiness. Others maintain that it is necessary to make room for homes, which also leads to happiness. Also, the article “Deforestation” states that, logging provides wood and paper products to much of the world. Without logging, people would experience shortages of many products they use each day, thus leading to an increase in the cost of these items.” This would accumulate to equating hardships and consequently unhappiness. They also argue that trees can be replaced by planting new ones. Finally, the Utilitarian theory does not positively ensure what the future will truly be like. However, these people fail to recognize that the negative effects are much larger than the positive reinforcements deforestation offers. Utilitarianism, however, fails to acknowledge the fact that the consequences of ones action cannot be predetermined with absolute certainty.
Hence, one is unable to justify whether the cessation of deforestation will really lead to more happiness than displeasure. Currently, the massive cutting down of trees have allowed for resources such as paper and woodwork that are essentially considered to make people happy. Also, due to the large amounts of places that have become barren these settings are now being used for housing developments, meaning that people have the opportunity to own a home, another source of happiness for many. It is highly apparent that deforestation has been able to secure the greatest amount happiness for many around the world. This in turn makes it difficult to conclude whether taking action to end deforestation will create more chaos than peace, or in a Utilitarian view more happiness or
pain. Utilitarianism fails to illustrate a secure future; it is unable to allow one to know all of the consequences of our actions. However, what many fail to realize is that the rapid rate of deforestation will conclude in no trees to ever serve the same amount of happiness one is receiving now, and Utilitarianism is highly concerned with the Greatest Happiness principle. According, to the article “Deforestation,” the University of Michigan discovered that “only 20 percent of Earth’s original forest remains.” It is nearly impossible to recreate all of these forests, since it would take years upon years. Consequently, less and less people will be able to enjoy these resources leading to a decreased sense of happiness and an increase in displeasure. Moreover, research into the current effects of deforestation has confirmed that continuing further with deforestation will conclude in negative consequences. Deforestation, as previously explained contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes to global warming, or climate change, “Deforestation” presents WWF’s findings that deforestation contributes to “15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.” These changes to the environment are irreversible further affecting the future generations, further putting the happiness of these generations in jeopardy. Both Bentham and Mill agree that Utilitarianism is strongly focused on evoking the greatest happiness and avoiding pain as the means to acting morally, otherwise known as the Greatest Happiness Principle. This principle is efficient in supporting the termination of deforestation, as it provides the fact that this would lead to the greater common good. Deforestation is undeniably showing the negative effects it is producing currently, but if the gradual decrease in cutting down of trees would take effect it could raise the possibility for new interpretations of the Utilitarian framework, such as how would happiness be defined if more forests would be allowed to flourish and how the hedonistic calculus formula would be rearranged. Utilitarianism in correlation with the social issue of deforestation has proven that necessary actions need to be taken to extremely decrease or end deforestation in order to secure that the greatest amount of people are able to enjoy the greatest amount pleasure or happiness.
The long-term aim is to develop an approach to ethics that will help resolve contemporary issues regarding animals and the environment. In their classical formulations and as recently revised by animal and environmental ethicists, mainstream Kantian, utilitarian, and virtue theories have failed adequately to include either animals or the environment, or both. The result has been theoretical fragmentation and intractability, which in turn have contributed, at the practical level, to both public and private indecision, disagreement, and conflict. Immensely important are the practical issues; for instance, at the public level: the biologically unacceptable and perhaps cataclysmic current rate of species extinctions, the development or preservation of the few remaining wilderness areas, the global limitations on the sustainable distribution of the current standard of living in the developed nations, and the nonsustainability and abusiveness of today's technologically intense crop and animal farming. For individuals in their private lives, the choices include, for example: what foods to eat, what clothing to wear, modes of transportation, labor-intensive work and housing, controlling reproduction, and the distribution of basic and luxury goods. What is needed is an ethical approach that will peacefully resolve these and other quandaries, either by producing consensus or by explaining the rational and moral basis for the continuing disagreement.
In “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments,” Thomas Hill tries to explain why destroying nature is morally inappropriate. His main argument is that rather than asking whether this action is wrong or right, we should ask what kind of person would destroy nature. Beforehand, one view is that since plants have right or interests, one should not violate their interest by destroying them. But Hill’s view is that we cannot address the interests of plants in order to criticize those who destroy the nature, because this approach is good for sentient beings. In this essay I am going to examine whether sentient is a necessary condition for interests to be counted? My upshot is that Hill’s view is correct.
The main reason deforestation happens, is because of farming. They need to clear out land in order to plant crops and vegetables. Another loss from deforestation is that many animals lose their habitat. The loss of animals habitats will lead to migration, or possibly even extinction. And when this happens this will ruin the food chains which will affect even more animals.
The utilitarian ethics theory in a nutshell basically states that “the good is the well-being of all, impartially considered (Riley 68).” What is emphasized in utilitarian theory is that the greatest good be produced for the greatest number of people. This brings up the question of what “good” actually is. Many utilitarian theorists believe there are two kinds of good, intrinsic and instrumental. Intrinsic good is good considered just by itself while all other things are instruments for gaining the intrinsic goods (Schinzinger 55). Mill believes that the only intrinsic good is happiness and thus the emphasis can be rewritten as the greatest happiness produced for the greatest number of people. In other words, happiness is basically the only thing desirable as an end in itself. However, once again we ask the question of what happiness really is. When explaining his utilitarian theory, Mill separates happiness into two types, the higher and the lower (Mill Ch.2). Mill defines the higher happiness as being that of humans including such qualities as justice, creativity, morality and nobility. On the other hand, the lower happiness is that which is associated with animals and is purely pleasure based. Using these two types of happiness, Riley c...
U T I L I T A R I A N I S M. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Utilitarianism: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Utilitarianism%20notes.htm
Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious threat since carbon dioxide traps the sun’s heat and radiated light inside the earth’s atmosphere. So, with the increase in carbon dioxide more heat is trapped and thus adding to the effects of global warming. Among the many places where deforestation takes place, Amazon seems to be one of the most affected ones. More than 20 percent of it is already gone, and much more of it is severely threatened due to deforestation . It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year .
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist moral theory, meaning the morality of our actions is judged according to the consequences they bring about. According to utilitarianisms, all our actions should promote happiness. For Mill, happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain. In this paper, I will discuss the objection to Utilitarianism that is only fit for a swine, and Mill’s responses to that objection. Those people who reject this moral theory will say utilitarianism does not grant human life enough value compared to that of a pig. Mill gives an effective response and states that humans can and are the only ones that experiences higher pleasures and qualities of life, which make a human's life better than a pig's life.
In his essay, The Ethics of Respect for Nature, Paul Taylor presents his argument for a deontological, biocentric egalitarian attitude toward nature based on the conviction that all living things possess equal intrinsic value and are worthy of the same moral consideration. Taylor offers four main premises to support his position. (1) Humans are members of the “Earth’s community of life” in the same capacity that nonhuman members are. (2) All species exist as a “complex web of interconnected elements” which are dependent upon one another for their well-being. (3) Individual organisms are “teleological centers of life” which possess a good of their own and a unique way in which to pursue it. (4) The concept that humans are superior to other species is an unsupported anthropocentric bias.
Deforestation is a widely used term, but one with different meanings. Disturbance deforestation refers to all man made disturbances that alter a forest, these are the most common. This argumentative essay discusses the positive and negative aspects of deforestation. In the first part of the essay the pro arguments of deforestation will be discussed. For example, the issue of Global population and how forests are being used, land use and the ways forests contribute, wood use, forest growth, destruction and the reasons for cutting down the trees. The second half of the essay will cover the issues that are harmful to the environment because of deforestation. Many environmental issues take place everyday; a big question that arises, is if the global economy will ever finds middle on the issue of forest thinning. If deforestation was used only in the most crucial of times, the world might become a better place.
General Information: First off, deforestation is the clearing of forests or areas with trees to be converted into something else after. There are a few different ways forests are cleared. Clear cutting is simply removing everything in sight. Patch cutting is the removal of trees in specified patches. Strip cutting is removing trees in selected strips. The most environmentally friendly method is known as selective cutting. This is the removal of only selected trees, leaving the others un-harmed. The technique used most during deforestation is the slash and burn technique. This uses the basic cutting method of clear cutting, but afterwards everything that remains is burned to ash.
Deforestation is fast becoming one of the world’s worst environmental/geographical occurring disasters known to mankind, and is due to humankind’s greed, ignorance and carelessness when considering the future of our environment.
Deforestation, defined by biologist Charles Southwick as "the destruction of forests; may involve clear-cutting or selective logging" (p. 365), is a predominantly human-driven process that is dramatically altering ecosystems worldwide. "Clear-cutting" involves the indiscriminant removal of every single plant and tree species from within a selected area. The other major process of deforestation, "selective logging," focuses removal efforts on only specific, predetermined tree species within a chosen area. The statistics gathered about human deforestation over time are considerable, and they can be somewhat controversial. Depending on the source and the location selected, the magnitude of deforestation varies. Southwick estimates that, approximately 10,000 years ago, 6.2 billion hectares (23.9 million square miles) of forest existed on earth (p. 117). That figure is equivalent to 45.5% of the earth's total land. He further estimates that, by 1990, this amount had declined 30%, with only 4.3 billion hectares of forest remaining (p. 117). Southwick also acknowledges other estimates that place the total amount of deforestation between 50% and 75% (p. 117). NASA has similar deforestation statistics that confirm these trends. According to their website, 16.5% of the Brazilian Amazon forests have been destroyed. They also note similar magnitudes of deforestation in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), despite the significantly smaller total area of forest within these countries. These grim figures are somewhat tempered by the NASA finding that, over the past ten years, the deforestation rate has declined from 6,200 square miles per year to 4,800 square miles per year. Though this trend is n...
Deforestation is the amputation of trees from forest areas more swiftly than they can be replanted or regenerate naturally. The fact that trees play an incredibly momentous part in stabilising climate, atmospheric composition and soil structure, removing trees rapidly becomes a major problem. There are numerous reasons behind the felling of trees by mankind. The Amazon basin is a prime example of humans exploiting rainforests. Within this tropical rainforest lie a vast variety of tree species, with many uses, giving humans even more reason to exploit this area.
People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Although tropical forests are largely confined to developing countries, they aren’t just meeting local or national needs; economic globalization means that the needs and wants of the global population are bearing down on them as well. Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. Rarely is there a single direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
Scientists themselves are just beginning to understand the serious problems caused by deforestation. Deforestation occurs all over the world by all types of people. Peasant farmers even add to the problem because in most tropical countries the farmers are very poor only making between eight hundred and fifty four hundred dollars annually (NASA Facts). Therefore, they do not have enough money to buy what they need to live therefore they must farm to raise crops for food and to sell. In these poor countries the majority of people are peasant farmers this farming adds up to a great deal of deforestation. These farmers chop down a small area of trees for there plot to farm on and burn the tree trunks (NASA Facts). The combined number of farmers maintaining this process creates a great deal of clearing and burning of the land they need to cultivate, which results in land being treeless. Commercial logging is also another common form of deforestation. This commercial logging wipes out massive amounts of land sometimes deforesting several miles at...