Environmental ethics and capitalism's dialetic of scarcity
Environmental Ethics 27 (3):227-244 (2005)
| Abstract | A non-productivist Marxism departing from the analysis of capitalism’s “dialectic of scarcity” can make a valuable contribution to the field of environmental ethics. On the one hand, the analysis of capitalism’s dialectic of scarcity shows that the ethical yardstick by which capitalism should be measured is immanent in this social system’s dynamic tendencies. On the other hand, this analysis exposes capitalism’s inability to fulfill the potential for an ecologically sustainable society without unnecessary human suffering that capitalism’s technological dynamism generates. This argument can be illustrated by a critical analysis of Bjorn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist. An exploration of capitalism’s dialectic of scarcity can bring to light those weaknesses and internal contradictions of antiecological discourses that are likely to escape the attention of non-Marxist ecologists. This analysis shows that to the extent capitalism’s dialectic of scarcity encourages the fragmentation of social justice and environmental movements, a critical analysis of this dialectic can contribute to the formation of the alliance of emancipatory movements that the attainment of a just and ecologically sustainable society presupposes | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,664 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesDonald C. Lee (1980). On the Marxian View of the Relationship Between Man and Nature. Environmental Ethics 2 (1):3-16.
John Rosenthal (2000). On Two "Models" of Capitalism. Science and Society 64 (4):424 - 459.
Chris Williams (2010). Ecology and Socialism: [Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis]. Haymarket Books.
Christopher Michaelson (2012). Reading Leaders' Minds: In Search of the Canon of 21st Century Global Capitalism. Asian Journal of Business Ethics 1 (1):47-61.
Richard P. Nielsen (2008). The Private Equity-Leveraged Buyout Form of Finance Capitalism: Ethical and Social Issues, and Potential Reforms. Business Ethics Quarterly 18 (3):379-404.
Costas Panayotakis (2004). A Marxist Critique of Marx's Theory of History: Beyond the Dichotomy Between Scientific and Critical Marxism. Sociological Theory 22 (1):123-139.
R. Edward Freeman, Kirsten Martin & Bidhan Parmar (2007). Stakeholder Capitalism. Journal of Business Ethics 74 (4):303 - 314.
Richard P. Nielsen (2008). The Private Equity-Leveraged Buyout Form of Finance Capitalism. Business Ethics Quarterly 18 (3):379-404.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads5 ( #160,239 of 549,014 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,261 of 549,014 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
