Is There an Identity Crisis in Environmental Ethics?

Abstract

Environmental ethics is both a moral philosophy and an applied ethics. This duality has led some people to feel confused about environmental ethics’ identity and to cast doubts on its legitimacy. This paper, by distinguishing and exploding environmental ethics’ two patterns of inquiry (the moral philosophy pattern and the applied ethics pattern) and their characteristics, tries to resolve the discipline’s identity crisis and to argue for its legitimacy.

Key words： environmental ethics; applied ethics; moral philosophy; identity crisis