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Introduction to environmental ethics
Introduction to environmental ethics
Utilitarianism: for and against
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Recommended: Introduction to environmental ethics
Utilitarianism
The concept of sustainable development is an attempt to balance two moral demands placed on the environment. The first demand is for development, including economic development or growth. It arises mainly from the interests of people who live in developing countries. Their present poverty gives them a low quality of life and calls urgently for steps to improve their quality of life. The second demand is for sustainability, for ensuring that we do not risk the future in the sake of gains in the present. This arises from the interests of people in the future who will need access to a reasonable quality of life, non-renewable resources, unspoiled wilderness, and a healthy biosphere. These two moral demands do conflict. In fact, economic growth is the prime source of threats to the natural environment.
We have a rough sense of what a good quality of life for humans consists of. Also, we can make some rough judgments about when a person's quality of life has increased or decreased. Utilitarianism about future generations says that people should weigh these increases impartially with respect to times. And, in particular, should not prefer a smaller increase in the present well-being to larger increases in the future. We should try to maximize the sum of increases in well-being across times counting future lives equally against those in the present. Our moral goal should always be to produce the greatest total of such gains, no matter by whom they are enjoyed.
Utilitarianism has been extensively discussed by philosophers, and many objections have been raised against it. Two objections are especially relevant here. First, utilitarianism is an extremely, even excessively demanding moral view for most humans. If we have a duty always to bring about the best outcome, than any time we can increase the well-being of others (which is just about at any time), we have a moral duty to do so. There is no moral time off, no moral relaxation, nor is there a moral holiday. Humans are always duty bound to sac... ... middle of paper ...
... we can see that each generation should pass on to its successors a range of opportunities that allows for a reasonable quality of life. However, it should not be seen as a duty. If it is seen as a duty, then most humans may be turned off by the prospect of taking care of their environment for future generations. If it is seen by humans that our environment is a precious jewel, then we will more than likely want to share it with our future generations.
Works Cited
[1] Brian Berry, "Intergenerational Justice in Energy Policy." In D. MacLean and P. G. Brown, eds., Energy and the Future Totowa, NJ: Rowan and Littlefield,
1983 pp.274.
Resources
1. Barry, Brian. "Intergenerational Justice in Energy Policy," in D. MacLean and P. G. Brown, eds., Energy and the Future Totowa, NJ: Rowan and Littlefield,
1983.
2. Danielson, Peter. "Personal Responsibility," in H. Coward and T. Hurka, eds., Ethics and Climate Change: The Greenhouse Effect Waterloo: Wilfred
Laurier UP, 1993.
3. Sidgwick, Henry. The Methods of Ethics, 7th ed. London: Macmillan, 1907.
4. World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1987.
Duty may be performed without strain or reflection of desire, which means your duty, or responsibility, should be performed without hesitation. “Dutifulness could be an account of a morality with no hint of religion” (Murdoch 364). Religion’s demand for morality and being good trumps a person’s decision to
...all need to take action and responsibilities of our own choice below any kind of situation we might be under because it will make us glad, it certainly worth it.
Medicine has developed so dramatically over the last century that it is difficult to imagine a world in which its many benefits did not exist. Even as humans manage to eradicate some diseases, a look at history reminds us that there was a time when these and other diseases were rampant, and good health was the exception rather than the norm. There are many comparable time periods that medicine was needed and was used. With each, there were drastic changes to medical procedures and medical rules. Of the many different time periods that medicine was used; the comparison of medical care during the American Civil War and medical care during World War I is the most interesting. How did Civil War battlefield medicine compare with World War I battlefield medicine? That's a question that cannot be simply answered, but can be broken down into the overall sanitation of individuals, medical techniques, and overall medical staff for armies.
Here at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, the influx of patients arriving home from the war inflicted with "battle wounds and mustard gas burns," has created a shortage of physicians and it is becoming increasingly difficult to fight this influenza. Even our own physicians are falling ill from the disease and dying within hours of its onset. Today I received a letter from Dr. Roy, a friend and fellow physician at Camp Devens, who describes a similar situation:
Hygiene was extremely poor prior to and during World War 1, especially for soldiers. Because of this and the fact that fighting soldiers couldn’t clean up wounds quickly enough, there were many deaths caused by infection alone. One big issue was trench foot. This was an awful infection caused by soldiers standing in the trenches for too long during battles. Over the course of the war, hygiene and infectious issues were being better dealt with. These issues led to vaccinations and treatment advancements. The earliest forms of the vaccinations and treatments used today were actually introduced in 1914. Those vaccinations and treatments have been improved upon since World War 1. One of the most fascinating things regarding medical procedures at this time has to be blood transfusions. It was 1917, when the first of hundreds of millions of blood transfusions was made. This idea has been improved upon as
During, and after World War I, there were lots of things that changed and advanced, some of the main, big changes and advances after World War I, was in the field of phycology and medicine. There were many different advances in the field of medicine after World War I, some of the main, medical advances, were in the field of surgery, development of new drugs, and in the field mental health and phycology.
Stepansky, Paul E., Ph. D. "Category Archives: Medicine in WWI." Medicine Health and History. February 11, 2012. Accessed January 13, 2014. http://adoseofhistory.com/category/military-psychiatry/medicine-in-wwi/.
“Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.”- Ayn Rand
Civil War hospitals were poorly sanitized. Physician did not comprehend what germs could cause. “They [doctors] would move from patient to patient without washing their hands or instruments. They would even wet
The Northern and Southern medical departments were not prepared for removing wounded soldiers from the battlefield and transferring them to a hospital. Hospital did their best to care for the sick and wounded. Things such as Blood typing, X-rays, antibiotics, and modern medical tests and procedures were imaginary. Diarrheal diseases affected almost every soldier and killed hundreds of thousands of men (National Museum of Health and Medicine, 2014).
now, but is it really something we should be doing? In the point of view of
... soldiers were attacked by diseases called dysentery, smallpox and typhus. Doctors soon realized that these diseases could be contained or less spread by improving sanitation. This was the time when vaccinations were discovered to treat smallpox and became mandatory in the U.S. Another sanitation change that was introduced was the use of proper footwear and clothing for soldiers. By 1814 the army had raised its sanitations standards helping to stop the spread in these common diseases.
The most important question of all is what should one do since the ultimate purpose of answering questions is either to satisfy curiosity or to decide which action to take. Complicated analysis is often required to answer that question. Beyond ordinary analysis, one must also have a system of values, and the correct system of values is utilitarianism.
World War 2 majorly increased medical knowledge because of disease, mass injury, and rebuilding efforts. World war 2 Ran rampant with diseases, infections, and illness in not only soldiers, but civilians too. Gangrene was a massive problem during the war, But with the inventions of the time A way to prevent further sickness Quickly developed under the chaos of rifle fire. The use of sulfur to prevent illness wa discovered, along with things like prontosil, and penicillin to stop infections. For civilians The war sped the work to discover. In the Battlefield Hospitals Were built with not only supplies to help sustain life, But filled with knowledge in books. And with the newly acquired radio,Though Not Perfect, made Communication across miles
...to make life predictable, to be able to shape our future just as we want