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    Routley Williams

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    Richard Routley devised the "Last Man" thought experiment to show that the dominant Western ethical tradition, which views nature as humanity's dominion, is insufficient for an environmental ethic. The experiment imagines a sole surviving human eliminating all life. This action would be permitted under the core Western principle that agents can do as they please without harming others or themselves. However, most would agree the last man's actions are morally wrong. This reveals non-anthropocentric values must inform environmental ethics. Routley aimed to establish nature has intrinsic worth beyond human interests and use.

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    Routley Williams

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    133 views11 pages
    Richard Routley devised the "Last Man" thought experiment to show that the dominant Western ethical tradition, which views nature as humanity's dominion, is insufficient for an environmental ethic. The experiment imagines a sole surviving human eliminating all life. This action would be permitted under the core Western principle that agents can do as they please without harming others or themselves. However, most would agree the last man's actions are morally wrong. This reveals non-anthropocentric values must inform environmental ethics. Routley aimed to establish nature has intrinsic worth beyond human interests and use.

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    Richard Routley devised the "Last Man" thought experiment to show that the dominant Western ethical tradition, which views nature as humanity's dominion, is insufficient for an environmental ethic. The experiment imagines a sole surviving human eliminating all life. This action would be permitted under the core Western principle that agents can do as they please without harming others or themselves. However, most would agree the last man's actions are morally wrong. This reveals non-anthropocentric values must inform environmental ethics. Routley aimed to establish nature has intrinsic worth beyond human interests and use.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    133 views11 pages

    Routley Williams

    Uploaded by

    api-196193978
    Richard Routley devised the "Last Man" thought experiment to show that the dominant Western ethical tradition, which views nature as humanity's dominion, is insufficient for an environmental ethic. The experiment imagines a sole surviving human eliminating all life. This action would be permitted under the core Western principle that agents can do as they please without harming others or themselves. However, most would agree the last man's actions are morally wrong. This reveals non-anthropocentric values must inform environmental ethics. Routley aimed to establish nature has intrinsic worth beyond human interests and use.

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    The Need for a New Environmental Ethic

    Richard Routley
    Why does Richard Routley think we
    need a new environmental Ethic?
    What is the basic (human) chauvinism,
    described by Routley?

    Types of Ethics

    Dominant ethical tradition nature is the dominion,


    property, of man and we are free to do with it as we
    please

    Stewardship ethical tradition

    Co-operative perfector of nature ethical tradition

    thus it appears that a NEW ethics is called for, but wait!

    Perhaps modifications of the previous positions will


    permit extension of ethics instead.

    Let's see what we can come up with:

    Modification of dominant position perhaps by


    claiming unforeseen future consequences of dominating
    activity, we can, in the end, line up ethical dominant
    behavior with behavior permitted under a new
    Environmental Ethic.

    Sylvan rejects thisnope it wont workto just


    have a deeper,more sophisticated
    enlightened self-interest approach..

    Group Activity:
    Last Man Thought Experiment

    Why did Routley devise the Last Man Thought


    Experiment?

    What is the freedom principle?

    Are the actions of the last man morally wrong? Create


    an argument to support your stance.

    The Last Man Thought Experiment

    It is a thought experiment designed to show that the


    prevailing principles of the dominant Western ethical
    tradition are unable to provide a satisfactory basis for an
    environmental ethic.

    An adequate ethic of concern for the non-human world


    must therefore have very different foundations.

    The shared core assumptions of western ethics (which


    Sylvan calls a "super ethic") include a freedom principle,
    according to which agents are permitted to act as they
    please provided that they do not (1) harm others
    (understood usually, though not always, as other
    persons), or (2) harm themselves.

    Sylvan labelled this anthropocentric principle basic


    human chauvinism, because it affirms that only human
    interests and concerns feature in moral deliberation and
    choice.

    The last man thought experiment was devised to


    refute this basic core principle, and thus expose the
    inadequacy of traditional western ethics to support an
    environmental ethic.

    Ethical principles must be universal and therefore apply


    not just to actual situations but to all possible situations.

    It is for this reason that thought experiments are


    important intuition jumps and play a central role in
    testing ethical principles.

    The last man (or person) surviving the collapse of the


    world system lays about him, eliminating, as far as he
    can, every living thing, animal or plant.

    What he does is quite permissible according to basic


    [human] chauvinism, but on environmental grounds
    what he does is wrong. (Routley 1973, 207f)

    Because he is the last human survivor, there are no other


    human interests to be considered, and the chauvinistic
    liberty principle therefore provides no grounds for
    moral condemnation of his actions.

    However it is clear to an environmentally enlightened


    conscience that the actions of the last man are morally
    dreadful.

    If you share Sylvan's intuition that these terminal


    actions are morally reprehensible, and if there are no
    anthropocentric considerations to support this intuition,
    then there must be some non-anthropocentric
    considerations or values which explain the evil of the
    acts.

    Must a Concern for the Environment Be


    Centered on Human Beings?

    Bernard Williams
    Group Activity
    Should we think beyond humans, when
    discussing ethics?
    -Extend morals to experience of animals?
    -Extend morals to non-animal things, though
    they have no experiences, do have interests?

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