Quiz 1 Content
Define and explain the difference between Instrumentally Rational and Ethically Rational.
Instrumentally Rational: refers to means-ends reasoning that identifies some goal of the individual as paramount. then considers an action “rational” if it promotes that goal
Ethical Rational: identifies some universal principle or norm as fundamental, then actions are evaluated as acceptable/ unacceptable according to whether they are consistent with that norm
What is the tension between welfarism and environmentalism?
animal suffering is most common in nature - it is morally wrong for humans to intervene in ecosystems
What is Steven Vogel's critique?
What is Stefan's concern with value?
if environmental value is reduced to economic value, you might lose what you love
What is the Economic View of a person?
bundle of preferences.
What is the Principle of Rational Depletion?
If there is a valued resource in limited supply, and if access to that resource is unrestricted, then it is always instrumentally rational to exploit the resource until it becomes unavailable
Define Moral Standing/Moral Significance in Leopold's Opinion.
if a thing has a moral standing / significance, then we should not treat is as a mere physical object, but more as we would treat a person. That is, as something that our moral norms and principles legitimately apply to.
What is the Wilderness Ideal? Which component of the argument does it challenge?
pristine wilderness ought to be protected
What is the Economic reasoning assumption?
A well regulated free market is the most efficient way to satisfy the aggregate preferences of a society
What is the Free Market Ideal?
The ideal place to negotiate the exchange of goods and services.
Name the three candidate solutions to the Principle of Rational Depletion.
1. Ethics
2. Widespread Privatization
3. Government Regulation
Name the two objections to Leopold's argument.
Objection to Expanding moral horizons: how far do we go? do we care about insects?
Objection to Community Membership: when it is applied to ecological systems it is metaphorical and imprecise
What is the descriptive objection to the Wilderness ideal?
P1) The Wilderness Ideal assumes that there are biotic regions that are untouched so they have moral standing
P2) However, wilderness regions have a history of impact by Indigenous humans
C) The Wilderness Ideal is flawed because there are no true wilderness regions
State the goal of environmental economics and how to calculate it.
Identify the essential ecosystem services, calculate the real value, and charge a fair price
how to calculate economic value? → replacement value, willingness to pay, behaviour
Define Ecosystem Services.
p1) government regulation is an effective solution to the PRD only if monitoring is reliable and policing is effective
p2) monitoring is prone to considerable error
p3) policing is often ineffective
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c) government regulation is often an inadequate solution to PRD
Explain both the Land Ethic Formulation and the Revised Land Ethic.
Land Ethic Formulation: A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
Revised Land Ethic: Humans should not perform actions that cause large-scale disruptions to biotic communities
What is the normative objection to the Wilderness ideal?
P1) Wilderness ideal assumes there are biotic regions untouched so they have moral standing
P2) However, formation of those regions involve unethical displacement of indigenous communities
P3) if a region was created unethically it undermines its moral standing
C) called wilderness ideal is flawed because it assigns moral standing to something that lacks it
What are some of the problems with pricing ecosystem services? (3 problems)
→ some things are valuable bc they cannot be bought and sold
→ it is difficult to calculate the replacement value bc often there is no commercially available replacement
→ willingness to pay is biased and easily miscalculated
Define Gratitude. What 2 ways does it view?
1. viewing nature as a gift rather than a commodity
2. viewing natural objects as animate
What is Leopold's "Expanding Horizons" argument? ALL 4 PREMISES + Conclusion!
P1) In the past, classes of people were regarded as mere property, not with ethical consideration
P2) We recognize that those people ought to have been regarded as ethically significant
P3) We currently treat the land as mere property, not with ethical consideration
P4) The boundaries of morality should be continually extended outward
C) People ought to treat The Land ethically with the kind of consideration that we treat other people
What is Singer's argument for Welfarism? Then reconstruct the argument.
a) It is immoral to systematically prioritize the interests of one group over another if both have moral standing
b) The fallacy of equivocation refers to a logical error where a word or phrase is used with multiple meanings in an argument, leading to a misleading or false conclusion. It occurs when the different meanings of a word or phrase are not properly distinguished, resulting in confusion or ambiguity in the argument's reasoning.
What are the Descriptive statement and the Normative statement & the claims of each in terms of Superorganisms?
What are the negative externalities that result from an exchange? What do environmentalists hate about it? Economists?
consequences resulting from exchange
→ reduce aggregate preference & satisfaction
→ not reflected in the price
→ environmentalists hate: quality of biotic communities decline as economic activity increases
→ economists hate: see aggregate preference satisfaction declining
What is the model of scientific progress, and what are the producer and consumer problems that come with it?
“kinda follows the truth i think” - Stefan
Challenges:
Producer problem: how to minimize deviation from truth, scientific method helps science stay correct but is not enough (problem of axillary assumption)
Consumer problem: how to evaluate whether a statement is true (no salesman rule)