ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the idea that morality is polymorphic and that within its complex structure there is a room for ecological or environmental considerations. The difference between humans and other living things is one of degree, rather than of kind, as far as freedom is concerned. Each organism makes choices and decisions under constraints and human choices are made with more information than are the choices of crows. As long as the individual is taken as separate from and aspiring to goals incompatible with the community, Mill's problem is bound to arise. Taylor avoids the temptation of trying to reduce all ethical considerations to those arising from respect for persons. His own position seems to force him to maintain that communities and ecosystems are themselves inherently worthless and thus outside the scope of the ethics. A properly ecological development of Taylor's principles may give them more chance of gaining acceptance.
