A Conflict of Visions*

If the title of this post sounds familiar, then you may have read or heard of Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. Essentially, Sowell categorizes two conflicting visions, which shape and determine how social visions develop including economic and moral visions. The two visions, which may often overlap are the constrained vision and the unconstrained vision. After a brief description of the two visions, two videos will be provided that I believe fairly represent each side.

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Singer, Climate Change, and Moral Doubts

From a recent article in The Guardian:

Peter Singer was in Oxford last week. The bestselling advocate of utilitarianism was the star contributor to a conference in which he talked with a group of Christian ethicists. Given Singer’s inflammatory views on matters such as euthanasia and infanticide, the dialogue was striking for its agreements, particularly the common cause that can be made between Christians and utilitarians when tackling global poverty, animal exploitation and climate change.

However, it was on the last issue that the conference demonstrated real philosophical interest too. Singer admitted that his brand of utilitarianism – preference utilitarianism – struggles to get to grips with the vastness of the problem of climate change. Further, there is an element that comes naturally to Christian ethics which his ethics might need in order to do so. It has to do with whether there are moral imperatives that can be held as objectively true.

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Climate Philosophy Newsletter

From the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Florida:

We are currently preparing the 2010 Climate Philosophy Newsletter at the University of South Florida. We would like to invite you to send us research news you have and want to share regarding the philosophical study of climate, climate change, and global warming. (Whether what you’re doing is ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, aesthetics, feminism, even history – connections from all these fields are relevant.) We welcome information about recent or upcoming publications, presentations, and works in progress.

We’d like to send out the newsletter in December. Please email news and inquiries to Martin Schonfeld or Nathan Draluck. Thanks!

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Kitcher at UWO

Phillip Kitcher was here a few weeks ago and gave two talks on the intersections of science, society, freedom, and democracy. I thought that some of you might like to watch and discuss what was said. Below are the videos:

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Gandhian ‘Ascetic’ Environmental Ethics

Farah Godrej (University of California, Riverside) is the speaker for UNF’s second annual John C. Maraldo lecture. Professor Godrej will present her paper, “Non-Western Traditions and Gandhian ‘Ascetic’ Environmental Ethics,” tomorrow evening (Thursday, April 15th), in building 15, room 1304, 7:30 – 9:00 P.M.

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Property Rights and Environmental Public Policy

Indeed, the principal reason why, in the first place, states and cities were ever organized at all was to defend private property. – Cicero ¹

In 1772, shortly before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Samuel Adams, who was a member of the Committee of Correspondence to the Boston Town Meeting, wrote the following:

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, the right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. Those are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.²

Adams and the other founders of our constitutional republic felt strongly that the right to property is a fundamental part of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable that even those who go as far as to deny the validity of eminent domain must acknowledge that to the extent the individual use of property affects other members of the community, both immediately and in the future, the community develops a legitimate interest in that use. Environmental public policy attempts to manage that interest, but is often a blunt and ineffective instrument due to a lack of scientific understanding about the long-term effects of such policies, and because of the political and financial self-interests that often drive them. This essay addresses the political and moral implications associated with the restriction of personal liberty and property rights by government that may be deemed necessary in the name of environmental protection.

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Dr. Dale Jamieson on ‘The Moral and Political Challenges of Climate Change’

On Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 I attended a lecture by Dr. Dale Jamieson, director of environmental studies at New York University, on “The Moral and Political Challenges of Climate Change” at the University of North Florida.

Dr. Jamieson noted at both the beginning and end of his lecture that the nature of global climate change presents an almost insoluble problem. He gave a brief overview of the scientific findings over the past century including the work of Drs. Arrhenius (i.) and Plass.(ii.) He went on to quote oceanographer Roger Revelle and geophysicist Hans Suess stating that by releasing the large quantities of carbon previously stored in fossil fuels into the atmosphere, humans are conducting a giant geophysical experiment without considering the results.(iii.) There is much evidence to suggest that climate change is caused by man, and groups such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have concluded that this is the case.(iv.) Nevertheless, Dr. Jamieson would not acknowledge that there are literally hundreds of other reputable climatologists from respected universities who discount the theory that human beings are making a significant impact upon the earth’s climate. (V.) He did note that the progression of climate change would not be affected for over a thousand years even if action to reverse the process were to begin to be taken today.

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Thomas Berry, Environmentalist, Priest, Eco-Theologian, Dies at 94

Read more here and here.

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Links for the Holiday

As many people prepare to eat holiday feasts and go shopping on Black Friday, over at the Utah State philosophy blog, Harrision Kleiner talks about Peter Singer’s argument on moral duties for helping the poor. And while Americans react to seeing Sarah Palin give an interview as a turkey is slaughtered behind her, Kleiner calls attention to Singer’s article in Newsweek on animal rights. A clip from Singer:

If animals do have rights, what rights would those be? The most basic right any sentient being can have is for his or her interests to be given equal consideration. After that, things get more complicated. Some advocates think that all animals have a right to life. Others give more weight to the lives of beings such as chimpanzees, which are capable of understanding that they have a life, and of having hopes and desires directed toward the future. The movement’s supporters agree that the way we treat animals now, as test subjects and factory-farm products, is flagrantly wrong.

Meanwhile, native people attempt to educate folks about the real story of Thanksgiving and discuss what Thanksgiving means to them. For many native families and friends of native people, Thanksgiving often turns out to be an annual discussion of Native American stereotypes

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CFP: Ethics and the Environment

CALL FOR PAPERS

Ethics & the Environment is considering papers for a special issue in honor of Val Plumwood. We welcome submissions on Plumwood’s philosophy, ecofeminism, indigenous environmental ethics, ecological perspectives on rationality, and other relevant topics.

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Bernard Williams Lecture in Nine Parts

Below are youtube links to a lecture Williams gave in 2002 at Princeton entitled “Unavoidable Human Prejudice.” In it, Williams discusses speciesism, Singer’s utilitarianism and the unavoidable human prejudice.

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Winona LaDuke on Climate Change and Sustainability

Here’s a lecture LaDuke gave last year (Sept, 2007) at UCF on climate change, sustainability and some of the things native communities are doing to create sustainable societies.

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Yankton Sioux Hog Farm Protest

Here’s an issue going on right now that’s relevant to my sporadic ongoing series on American Indian political issues.

You can listen to this recent broadcast of Native America Calling to get a sense of the issues. (And there are many: tribal borders, jurisdiction, and environmental impacts, to name a few.)

From the Native America Calling website:

More arrests have been made in South Dakota as tribal members continue to protest across the site where a hog farm is being built. The farm is being built near Yankton Sioux tribal lands and tribal members are concerned about potential air and water contamination. State troopers have arrested dozens of protestors for disorderly conduct. A group called the Yankton Sioux Tribe Head Start Concerned Parents filed a complaint in federal court to halt the project. Who will win out? Our guest is Oi Zephier (Yankton Sioux), a former tribal police officer for the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

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Sweet Deal

Via the wonderful SWIP-L list, I’m informed of a new collection of essays called Global Ethics: Seminal Essays (Eds. Pogge and Horton). Here’s a blurb from the publisher:

In recent decades, there has been an explosion of interest in global ethics — the study of ethical issues with significant global dimensions. This book, a companion volume to Global Justice: Seminal Essays, provides a sample of the best recent work on those issues. Topics treated include whether individuals and governments in rich countries should give more aid to people in poor countries, and what the nature of any such duties might be; the causes of persistent poverty in certain countries; the conditions under which military action aimed at protecting human rights in foreign countries might be morally justified; the moral basis for the right to self-determination; whether attitudes such as patriotism and nationalism are morally justified in today’s world, and if so, what justifies them; what “development” is; whether there could be a genuinely universal consensus on human rights; and what response might be morally required to such global problems as population growth and climate change.

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Colbert Reports on Speciesism

Those who were interested in our earlier discussion of speciesism, might want to check out Stephen Colbert’s interview of Peter Singer. Of particular interest is Singer’s answer to Colbert’s “stumper question”: if we shouldn’t eat animals, why are they so delicious?

- Rico Vitz

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“Losing One’s Self”

… a colloquium with Cheshire Calhoun at the University of Miami today (Friday, February 2nd) at 3:30 P.M. Details available here.

In philosophy news from the northern part of the state today, UNF welcomes Benjamin Hale (Colorado), who will present his paper, “What’s So Moral about the Moral Hazzard?” at 4:00 P.M. For more details, contact the Department of Philosophy.

(BTW: My apologies to Matthew Kisner for missing the announcement of his colloquium on Spinoza’s virtuous passions at “The U” on Monday.)

- Rico Vitz

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The Fallacy of ‘Speciesism’

Since this is my first post I should probably begin by introducing myself. My name is Nicholas Comparato (as will hopefully appear with this post) and I am currently an undergraduate philosophy major at the University of North Florida. Recently I attended a colloquium regarding the unequal ethical treatment of animals in current society based primarily on ideas borrowed from Peter Singer. The argument being presented relied heavily on the concept of ‘speciesism’ to suggest that there was no true justification for the ethical preference afforded humans over non-human animals.

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The Moral Significance of Animal Cognition

Dr. Robert Jones (Stanford) will present his paper, “The Moral Significance of Animal Cognition,” at the University of North Florida on Friday, Jan. 26th. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact UNF’s Department of Philosophy.

- Rico Vitz

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