Environmental ethics and philosophy and its role in the present world

Subject Areas : Water and Environment

Mohammad Reza Alavi Moghaddam ¹ , Azam Ghasemi ²

1 - Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of technology
2 - Researcher, research center of human sciences and cultural studies, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2008-05-06 Accepted : 2008-12-10 Published : 2009-06-22

Keywords: Environmental ethics and philo, ethical values, Codes of ehics, Environmental Issues,

Abstract :

Nowadays, the management of environmentalissues such as hazardous waste is not simply atechnical problem, but is confounded by legal,social, political and even ethical considerations.Environmental ethics deals with the moral issuesinvolved in relationships between humans and theworld around us. Due ro the importance of theseissues in our present world, the understanding ofmain principles of environmental ethics and philosophyhas become essential for all specialistswho are working in different fields. The environmentalissues cannot be solved without the helpof all people, specially managers and engineers.The main aim of this paper is to compare differentethical perspectives regarding our environment.In the paper, different ethical perspectives includinghumaisn, biocentrism (life-centered), ecocentrism(eco-centeric), and utilitiarinism are brieflyexplained. In addition, the religious view pointsregarding the environment are briefly discussed.Humanism claims that human society is uniquebecause of out intelligent, foresight and creativityand on the other hand, eco-centrism claims that allecological processes and systems have intrinsicvalues and rights regardless of their usefulness.Furthermore, the importance and role of the codesof Ethics for engineers, which are adopted by severalprofessional associations, are described in thepaper.

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