Tag: weak anthropocentrism

Why Norton’s Approach is Insufficient for Environmental Ethics

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Westra, Laura
Environmental Ethics Vol. 19/3 (1997), pages 279-97

There has been an ongoing debate about the best approach in environmental ethics. Bryan Norton believes that “weak anthropocentrism” will yield the best results for public policy, and that it is the most defensible position. In contrast, I have argued that an ecocentric, holistic position is required to deal with the urgent environmental problems that face us, and that position is complemented by the ecosystem approach and complex systems theory. I have called this approach “the ethics of integrity,” and in this paper I show why this perspective suggests better solutions to difficult cases, for which “weak anthropocentrism” fails to provide an answer.

WestraWhyNortonsApproachIsInsufficent.pdf

Contextualism and Norton’s Convergence Hypothesis

Posted on by Subhash

Steverson, Brian K.
Environmental Ethics Vol. 17/2 (1995), pages 135-150

Toward Unity among Environmentalists is Bryan Norton’s most developed effort to surmount the frequently intractable debate between anthropocentrists and nonanthropocentrists. Norton argues that the basic axiological differences between the two positions have become irrelevant at the level of policy formation. His thesis is that the two camps converge when dealing with practical goals and aims for environmental management. I argue that Norton’s approach falls significantly short of establishing such a convergence because of the overall methodological framework for policy formation that he defends. The key problem with that framework is that it fails to provide for the degree of species protection most suitable to the nonanthropocentrist position.

SteversonNortonsConvergenceHypothesis.pdf