ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that ethical considerations, although often camouflaged, are alive and present in the land resources planning and development process. It discusses patterns of ethical thinking and ethical dilemmas that underlie that process. The chapter suggests how an ethical perspective might become more prominent and useful in dealing with issues related to future land planning. There are two kinds of ethical principles—ends- and means-oriented principles. The chapter also suggests that the teleological approach is more often used than the deontological when an ethical perspective enters into a discourse on land resource issues. A teleologist would say that the basic standard for judging what's ethically right, wrong, or obligatory is the nonmoral value or good that is brought about as a consequence of some action. The point is that numerous ethical imperatives compete for attention in the real world, which makes it more difficult to sort out right from wrong in a practical sense.
