Honors Theses
Date of Award
Fall 5-9-2020
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Philosophy and Religion
First Advisor
Neil Manson
Second Advisor
Kyle Fritz
Third Advisor
Steven Skultety
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This paper responds to issues that have been raised for environmental philosophy in light of developments in astrobiology and exoplanet science. In recent years, we have moved much closer to confronting evidence of life beyond Earth. Pairing such a discovery with a certain theoretical understanding of the universe, we might be motivated to address a question: with knowledge of abundant, potentially infinite alien life on Earth-like planets, why must we save our planet? In anticipation of this discovery, we can use this scenario, the Cosmic Perspective Problem, to refine a widely-held position with substantial implications for our environmental ethics. The purpose of this paper is to consider what happens when our scope is greatly increased, especially as nonanthropocentrists are concerned. It offers solutions for moving away from a maximizing consequentialist framework in favor of an ethical framework that better facilitates consistency in one’s environmental ethics.
Recommended Citation
Eason, Eveanne, "A Nonanthropocentric Response to the Cosmic Perspective Problem" (2020). Honors Theses. 1513.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1513
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