ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of environmental ethics, a branch of applied philosophy that explores the value of organisms, species, and ecosystems – and the duties these values impose. Historically, environmental ethicists have criticized anthropocentrism, the worldview that sees nature through the lens of human interests. In its place they defend a nonanthropocentric ethic granting moral value to nature beyond its usefulness. A more human-centered ethic, however, has also flourished in the field for decades. The recent emergence of the Anthropocene poses challenges for both approaches to environmental ethics given its acknowledgement of the extent and depth of human environmental impacts.
