It is clear to me that my conception of what constitutes 'philosophy' is different from both the popular conception and the conception of currently practicing academic philosophers.
In my conception, philosophers of ethics develop theory and we all, when faced with moral problems, attempt to apply this theory in our moral reasoning. I drew the analogy with mathematics, where mathematicians develop theory and we all apply this theory when buying groceries. I am apparently the only person in this group that thinks this distinction between development and application of moral theory is worth maintaining. When I said that I saw nothing in geoengineering for moral philosophy, I meant that in the sense that I also see nothing in buying groceries for mathematicians (although I do not doubt that some mathematician will be inspired at the checkout line to develop new mathematical theory). I do believe that there is much in moral reasoning as developed by philosophers over the ages that can be applied to the moral problems posed by geoengineering. Call me obtuse, but nothing in this discussion has caused me to reassess the view I started out with: To me, a moral philosopher of geoengineering is like a mathematician of the grocery checkout line. _______________ Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution Dept of Global Ecology 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA +1 650 704 7212 [email protected] http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab @kencaldeira *Currently visiting * Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)<http://www.iass-potsdam.de/> *and *Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Resarch (PIK)<http://www.pik-potsdam.de/> *in Potsdam, Germany.* On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 2:18 AM, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Ken, > > Like most of the others, I'm not much worried about whether or not > geoengineering is "fundamentally new" in some technical sense. > However, I would say that, much as we may love them, it is hard to > argue that Aristotle, Hume, Kant, et al., have "already considered" > the issues, if this is supposed to mean that they have *adequately > addressed* the relevant questions. In my view, climate change brings > together a large number of theoretical questions that we are not > currently well equipped to handle - in areas such as global justice, > intergenerational ethics, humanity's relationship to nature, > scientific uncertainty, contingent persons, etc. Some sign of this > comes with the difficulties faced by standard theories such as > economic CBA, utilitarianism, contractarianism, and so on. So, there > is lots of work to do. > > In general, my view is that there is an exciting emerging literature > on these matters. The Montana bibliography is a very useful > resource. Some of my own position is outlined in my recent book, A > Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Challenge of Climate Change (Oxford, > 2011), which includes a chapter on geoengineering. I've also written > on the values of the Royal Society report on geoengineering, on Dale > Jamieson's classic piece about whether climate change challenges our > ethical concepts (my 'Is No One Responsible for Global Environmental > Tragedy?'), and on whether Rawls has the theoretical resources to deal > with climate change. These papers (and others) are available at: > http://www.phil.washington.edu/POV/GardinerFormalPublicationList.htm > I'd also recommend Allen Thompson and Jeremy Bendik-Keymer's new MIT > collection on the ethics of adaptation (including material on > ecological restoration and on geoengineering). > > Best wishes, > > Steve > > Stephen Gardiner > Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professor of the Human Dimensions of the > Environment > University of Washington, Seattle > > (Currently Visiting Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the > Environment, Oxford University) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "geoengineering" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
