The Conflict Between Mental State-Focused Moral Criteria and Environmental Ethics Ones

Abstract

The criteria granting moral considerability determines which entities ought to be taken into consideration in our ethical thinking. Accepting the relevance of axiology for normative theory, the attribution of considerability will depend on what theory of value we accept. According to certain views, the possession of certain mental states is the morally relevant factor. However, different views in the so-called “environmentalism ethics” claim that this is not a plausible axiological criterion. This paper will point at the different practical consequences resulting from these views as well as the conflicts that may arise between them.