Abstract
This paper concerns virtue-based ethical principles that bear upon agricultural uses of technologies, such as GM crops and CRISPR crops. It does three things. First, it argues for a new type of virtue ethics approach to such cases. Typical virtue ethics principles are vague and unspecific. These are sometimes useful, but we show how to supplement them with more specific virtue ethics principles that are useful to people working in specific applied domains, where morally relevant domain-specific conditions recur. We do this while still fulfilling the need for principles and associated practical reasoning to flexibly respect variation between cases. Second, with our more detailed approach we criticize and improve upon a commonly discussed principle about ecosystemic external goods that are crucial for human flourishing. We show this principle is far more conservative than appreciated, as it would prohibit many technology uses that are uncontroversially acceptable. We then replace this principle with two more specific ones. One identifies specific conditions in which ecosystem considerations are against a technology use, the other identifies favorable conditions. Third, we uncover a humility-based principle that operates within an influential “hubris argument” against uses of several biotechnologies in agriculture. These arguments lack a substantive theory of the nature of humility. We clarify such a theory, and then use it to replace the uncovered humility-based principle with our own more specific one that shifts focus from past moral failings, to current epistemic limits when deciding whether to support new technologies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
For a relatively comprehensive list of papers and books on this topic, see Barker (forthcoming).
Elsewhere, one of us has defended the framework (Barker, forthcoming).
We offer these criteria by drawing on criteria stated by Hursthouse (1999, 167). Ours depart from hers in ways that we hope make small improvements, though given the different goals of our article we leave judgment of improvement to the reader.
Thus even if it appears that a consequentialist principle and a virtue principle favour the same action in a given case, this will be mere appearance if the underlying consequentialism is false, since principles drawn from a false view in fact advise nothing at all.
Although this may amount to an anthropocentric justification for their protection, this would not imply that we ought to be anthropocentrically motivated to protect them. A neo-Aristotelian framework may suggest that part of what it is to be a flourishing and morally excellent human is to be disposed to act in many circumstances for the sake of the environment and the non-human entities it contains (Barker, forthcoming).
This example comes from family history; Barnes was Barker’s step-grandfather.
The original source of this common phrase is unknown.
As presented in Barker (2017).
For relevant background see “Videotape Format War” (2016).
On Blackberry’s rise and fall, see Hill (2013).
For other criticisms of appeals to an attitude of domination and control, see Moula (2014).
But see Temple (2017) for coverage of current Harvard experiments that involve “a high-altitude balloon that would spray a small quantity of reflective particles into the stratosphere”.
References
Alfred, R. (2008). July 22, 1952: Genuine crop-circle maker patented. In WIRED. http://www.wired.com/2008/07/dayintch-0722/.
Barker, M. (2017). An integrated theory of humility. Presented at the annual meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association (APA), Seattle, WA, 15th April 2017.
Barker, M. (forthcoming). Diverse environments, diverse people. In T. DesRosches, F. Jankunis & B. Williston (eds.), New directions in Canadian environmental philosophy. Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Brodwin, E. (2016). The next generation of GMO food is here, and it’s technically not a GMO. In Business insider. August 4. http://www.businessinsider.com/dupont-crispr-corn-in-stores-in-5-years.
Button, M. (2005). ‘A monkish kind of virtue’? For and against humility. Political Theory, 33(6), 840–868.
Cafaro, P. (2005). Gluttony, arrogance, greed, and apathy: An exploration of environmental vice. In R. Sandler & P. Cafaro (Eds.), Environmental virtue ethics (pp. 135–158). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.: Springer.
Carson, R. (1962). Silent spring (1st ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Chappell, T. (2014). Virtues and rules. In S. van Hooft (Ed.), The handbook of virtue ethics (pp. 76–87). Durham: Acumen Publishing.
Davis, D. E., Worthington, E. L., Jr., & Hook, J. N. (2010). Humility: Review of measurement strategies and conceptualization as personality judgment. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5(4), 243–252. doi:10.1080/17439761003791672.
Dimick, D. (2014). If you think the water crisis can’t get worse, wait until the aquifers are drained. National Geographic News. August 21. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140819-groundwater-california-drought-aquifers-hidden-crisis/.
Exline, J. J., & Geyer, A. L. (2004). Perceptions of humility: A preliminary study. Self and Identity, 3(2), 95–114. doi:10.1080/13576500342000077.
Foot, P. (2001). Natural goodness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Garcia, J. L. A. (2006). Being unimpressed with ourselves: Reconceiving humility. Philosophia, 34(4), 417–435. doi:10.1007/s11406-006-9032-x.
Giesy, J. P., Dobson, S., & Solomon, K. R. (2000). Ecotoxicological risk assessment for Roundup® herbicide. In G. W. Ware (Ed.), Reviews of environmental contamination and toxicology (Vol. 167, pp. 35–120). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-1156-3_2.
Hamblin, J. D. (2013). Nature: The birth of catastrophic environmentalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Herbert, L. T., Vázquez, D. E., Arenas, A., & Farina, W. M. (2014). Effects of field-realistic doses of glyphosate on honeybee appetitive behaviour. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 217(Pt 19), 3457–3464. doi:10.1242/jeb.109520.
Hill, S. (2013). The 11 moments that defined BlackBerry’s rise and fall. Techradar. September 23. http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/the-10-moments-that-defined-blackberry-s-rise-and-fall-1175428/2.
Hornbeck, R., & Keskin, P. (2014). The historically evolving impact of the ogallala aquifer: Agricultural adaptation to groundwater and drought. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6(1), 190–219. doi:10.1257/app.6.1.190.
Hursthouse, R. (1999). On virtue ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. (2004). Safety of genetically engineered foods: Approaches to assessing unintended health effects. Washington, D.C.: Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. http://dels.nas.edu/Report/Safety-Genetically-Engineered-Foods-Approaches/10977.
Kahneman, D. (2013). Thinking, fast and slow. Port Moody, BC: Anchor Canada.
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (Eds.). (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Katz, E. (2009). The big lie: Human restoration of nature. In A. Light & H. Rolston III (Eds.), Environmental ethics: An anthology (pp. 390–397). Hoboken: Blackwell.
Kehlenbeck, H., Saltzmann, J., Schwarz, J., Zwerger, P., & Nordmeyer, H. (2016). Economic assessment of alternatives for glyphosate application in arable farming. Julius-Kühn-Archiv, 452, 279–289.
Kleinstiver, B. P., Pattanayak, V., Prew, M. S., Tsai, S. Q., Nguyen, N., Zheng, Z., et al. (2016). High-fidelity CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases with no detectable genome-wide off-target effects. Nature, 529(7587), 490–495. doi:10.1038/nature16526.
Konikow, L. F. (2011). Contribution of global groundwater depletion since 1900 to sea-level rise. Geophysical Research Letters, 38(17), L17401. doi:10.1029/2011GL048604.
LaBouff, J. P., Rowatt, W. C., Johnson, M. K., Tsang, J.-A., & Willerton, G. M. (2012). Humble persons are more helpful than less humble persons: Evidence from three studies. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(1), 16–29. doi:10.1080/17439760.2011.626787.
Luther, M. (1948). Martin Luther’s Christmas book. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Books.
McKibben, B. (2006). The end of nature (Reprint edition). New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Moula, P. (2014). GM crops, the hubris argument and the nature of agriculture. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 28(1), 161–177. doi:10.1007/s10806-014-9526-7.
OECD. (1999). 21st century technologies: Promises and perils of a dynamic future. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Parson, E. A. (2003). Protecting the ozone layer. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0195155491.001.0001/acprof-9780195155495.
Peterson, R. K. D., & Hulting, A. G. (2004). A comparative ecological risk assessment for herbicides used on spring wheat: The effect of glyphosate when used within a glyphosate-tolerant wheat system. Weed Science, 52(5), 834–844. doi:10.1614/WS-03-149R.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification (1st ed.). Washington, DC: Oxford University Press.
Pleasants, J. M., & Oberhauser, K. S. (2013). Milkweed loss in agricultural fields because of herbicide use: Effect on the monarch butterfly population. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 6(2), 135–144. doi:10.1111/j.1752-4598.2012.00196.x.
Plumwood, V. (2002). Environmental culture: The ecological crisis of reason (Vol. 7, p. 2). Abingdon: Routledge.
Raffensperger, C. (2002). Learning to speak ethics in technological debates. In M. Lappe & B. Bailey (Eds.), Engineering the farm: Ethical and social aspects of agricultural biotechnology (pp. 125–133). Washington, DC: Island Press.
Samuelson, P. L., Jarvinen, M. J., Paulus, T. B., Church, I. M., Hardy, S. A., & Barrett, J. L. (2015). Implicit theories of intellectual virtues and vices: A focus on intellectual humility. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(5), 389–406. doi:10.1080/17439760.2014.967802.
Sandler, R. (2003). The external goods approach to environmental virtue ethics. Environmental Ethics, 25, 279–293.
Sandler, R. (2005). A virtue ethics perspective on genetically modified crops. In R. Sandler & P. Cafaro (Eds.), Environmental virtue ethics (pp. 215–233). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
Sandler, R. (2007). Character and environment: A virtue-oriented approach to environmental ethics. New York: Columbia University Press.
Schmitz, P. M., Mal, P., & Hesse, J. W. (2015). The importance of conservation tillage as a contribution to sustainable agriculture: A special case of soil erosion, 2nd revised edition. Nr. 33. Gießen, Germany: Institut für Agribusiness. http://www.uni-giessen.de/fbz/fb09/institute/iam/prof-ae/for/conservation-tillage/conservation%20tillage.
Schwieger, D. S. (2011). Center pivots. In D. J. Wishart (Ed). Encyclopedia of the great plains. Lincoln: University of Nebraska. http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ind.011.
Sinha, G. Alex. (2012). Modernizing the virtue of humility. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 90(2), 259–274. doi:10.1080/00048402.2011.584542.
Song, G., Jia, M., Chen, K., Kong, X., Khattak, B., Xie, C., et al. (2016). CRISPR/Cas9: A powerful tool for crop genome editing. The Crop Journal, 4(2), 75–82. doi:10.1016/j.cj.2015.12.002.
Stern, P. (2000). Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 407–424.
Swanton, C. (2003). Virtue ethics: A pluralistic view. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Szalavitz, M. (2012). Humility: A quiet, underappreciated strength. In Time. http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/27/humility-a-quiet-underappreciated-strength/.
Tangney, J. P. (2000). Humility: Theoretical perspectives, empirical findings and directions for future research. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19(1), 70–82.
Temple, J. (2017). Harvard scientists moving ahead on plans for atmospheric geoengineering experiments. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603974/harvard-scientists-moving-ahead-on-plans-for-atmospheric-geoengineering-experiments/.
Videotape Format War. (2016). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Videotape_format_war&oldid=739637264.
van Wensveen, L. (2001). Ecosystem sustainability as a criterion for genuine virtue. Environmental Ethics, 23, 227–241.
Weare, B. C. (1995). Efforts to reduce stratospheric ozone loss affect agriculture. California Agriculture (USA), 49(2), 24–27.
Williams, B. (1981). Persons, character, and morality. In J. Rachels (Ed.), Moral luck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acknowledgements
We thank Jennifer Welchman and the audience at the first meeting of the Canadian Society for Environmental Philosophy for helpful feedback. For research assistance we thank John Barker, Wyatt Barnes, Laura Gallivan, Marc Gagnon, and John Nenniger.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Barker, M.J., Lettner, A.F. Environmentally Virtuous Agriculture: How and When External Goods and Humility Ethically Constrain (or Favour) Technology Use. J Agric Environ Ethics 30, 287–309 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-017-9669-4
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-017-9669-4