A Morally Deep World An Essay on Moral Significance and Environmental Ethics [Paperback]

Advocating a major change in our attitude toward the nonhuman world, the author argues that nonhuman animals, as well as ecosystems, are morally significant beings with interests and rights.Advocating a major change in our attitude toward the nonhuman world, the author argues that nonhuman animals, as well as ecosystems, are morally significant beings with interests and rights.Lawrence Johnson advocates a major change in our attitude toward the nonhuman world. He argues that nonhuman animals, and ecosystems themselves, are morally significant beings with interests and rights. The author considers recent work in environmental ethics in the introduction and then presents his case with the utmost precision and clarity.Introduction: Towards the horizons of the moral universe; 1. Some background - much of which is still in the foreground; 2. Sweet reason; 3. A matter of interest; 4. Holism; 5. A brief essay on the limitations of moral theory; 6. Eco-interests; 7. Deep and shallow. On the green side of politics and philosophical thought, many want to claim that all living things should be protected from harm, irrespective of their value for human beings. They assert that plants, species, and ecosystems as a whole, have intrinsic moral value. I know of no better attempt to present a rational and argued defence of such a claim than Lawrence Johnson's A Morally Deep World. Peter Singer Johnson's text is an original and probing consideration of the significance of ethics in a world populated by a diversity of life forms and living systems. James Hatley, Environmental Ethics