Abstract

Moral realism has made a remarkable comeback. This time it must contend with environmental ethics, a relatively new discipline. In its newest version, moral realism ties in rather well with some versions of environmental ethics. In an examination of moral realism I distinguish two trends that diverge in their conception of moral realism: British and American. Very broadly, the British moral realists revive intuitionism and the American moral realists tend toward ethical naturalism. I discuss six major attributes of moral realism: cognitivism, phenomenology, inescapability, independence, explanatoriness, and naturalism. I bring out the strong and weak points of both American and British moral realism as I examine these 6 aspects of moral realism. I demonstrate that American moral realism provides the most plausible explanation of the phenomenological and theoretical aspects of moral experience. ;In chapter 3 I address a question that is demanded of metaethics, namely, 'What good does it do?' This leads me to the connection between metaethics, normative ethics and evolutionary ethics. I argue that American moral realism accords well with an evolutionary understanding of human origins. ;Chapter 4 covers environmental ethics. I first discuss the relationship between American moral realism and the field of environmental ethics, then I provide an overview of many theories of environmental ethics. I observe a distinction between indirect and direct versions of environmental ethics. Examples of indirect versions that I review are: future generations approaches, economic analysis approaches, prudential approaches, and weak anthropocentrism. I then address 3 direct versions of environmental ethics: animocentrism, biocentrism and ecocentrism. ;Having canvassed the many approaches to environmental ethics, I consider what an 'environ-moral realism' would be. I argue that American moral realism can successfully be coupled with the biocentrism of Paul Taylor as it has been modified by James Sterba. The new environ-moral realism captures all the desirable features of the other versions of environmental ethics--both indirect and direct--while excising their shortcomings. The result is a comprehensive picture of the nature of ethics, that, in light of evolutionary and ecological considerations, provides an understanding of ethics in the larger framework of human existence