Journal Article

TI: Liberty of Ecological Conscience
AU: Lercher, Aaron
SO: Environmental Ethics. Fall 2006; 28(3): 315-322
IS: 0163-4275
AB: Our concern for nonhuman nature can be justified in terms of a human right to liberty of ecological conscience. The liberty of ecological conscience, like religious liberty, is a negative right against interference. Each ecological conscience supports a claim to the protection of the parts of nonhuman nature that are current or potential sites of its active pursuit of natural value. If we acknowledge the fallibility of each conscience in its pursuit of genuine natural value, a policy of indefinitely extensive conservation can be justified. Destruction of an object of current or potential natural value is like destroying a church, mosque, temple, or other holy place. This justification for environmental conservation is analogous to the standard justification for individual negative rights, as upheld by the liberal tradition of Locke, Mill, and Rawls. (edited)
DE: CONSCIENCE; CONSERVATION; ECOLOGY; ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS; ETHICS; LIBERALISM; NATURE; LIBERTY
LA: English
DT: Journal-Article

Book

TI: Which Rights Should Be Universal?
AU: Talbott, William J
PB: Oxford Univ Pr : Oxford, 2005
IB: 0195173473
AB: In this book, Talbott builds on the work of John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, J. S. Mill, Amartya Sen, and Henry Shue to explain how, over the course of history, human beings have learned how to adopt a distinctively moral point of view from which it is possible to make universal, though not infallible, judgments of right and wrong. He explains how this distinctively moral point of view has led to the discovery of the moral importance of nine basic rights. Undoubtedly, the most controversial issue raised by the claim of universal rights is the issue of moral relativism. How can the advocate of universal rights avoid being a moral imperialist? In this book, Talbott shows how to defend basic individual rights from a universal moral point of view that is neither imperialistic nor relativistic. (publisher, edited)
DE: ETHICS; INDIVIDUAL; MORALITY; RELATIVISM; RIGHTS; UNIVERSAL
LA: English
DT: Monograph

Contribution to an Anthology

TI: “Utilitarianism and its Applications” in “New Directions in Ethics”, De Marco, Joseph P (ed), 24-41
AU: Smart, J J C
PB: Routledge and K Paul: New York
AB: The paper begins with an exposition of hedonistic act utilitarianism but with some consideration of Donald Regan’s co-operative utilitarianism and of the satisfaction utilitarianism of Hare and others. Applications of utilitarian thinking are then briefly discussed, with reference to punishment, political philosophy (in contrast to Rawls and Nozick), the treatment of non-human animals, biological engineering, the arms race and nuclear war, and the future of life on earth.
DE: ETHICS; APPLIED ETHICS; UTILITARIANISM
LA: English
DT: Contribution

Book Review

TI: Understanding Ethical Failures in Leadership
AU: Price, Terry L
RV: Hartman, Edwin M
SO: Business Ethics Quarterly. O 2006; 16(4): 630
IS: 1052-150X
PB: Cambridge Univ Pr : Cambridge, 2006
DT: Book-Review