Award Date
1-1-2000
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Ethics and Policy Studies
First Committee Member
Barbara Brents
Number of Pages
172
Abstract
When the environmental movement began to surge in the 1960s, concerns were raised over the prospects of the U.S. population growing to an unsustainable level and causing irreparable harm to the environment and our quality of life. Unfortunately, population growth has not been given the priority it deserves not because it is not an important issue, but because of our failure to view population growth, and all environmental issues, from a biocentric outlook. It is this paradigm shift towards biocentrism that we as moral agents should be making and which will subsequently cause us to view population growth in a new way. This argument is made by illuminating the inadequacies of the traditional anthropocentric ways of defining environmental issues, and then presenting and defending the biocentric ethics that we should use to supplement our traditional outlook on our place in the environment and how we treat it and its nonhuman inhabitants.
Keywords
Addressing; Biocentric; Environmental; Ethics; Growth; Perspective; Policies; Population; United States
Controlled Subject
Political science; Demography; Environmental sciences
File Format
File Size
4505.6 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Permissions
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Repository Citation
MacWilliams, Philip Davis, "United States population policies and environmental ethics: Addressing population growth from the biocentric perspective" (2000). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1169.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/hfho-c7sx
Rights
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