A Heuristic For Environmental Values And Ethics

Research paper covering values and ethics of Ohioans as they relate to environmental protection, with the goal of developing a survey instrument to effectively measure such attitudes among other populations.

This research purports to develop a methodology to identify the theories of value and obligation, develop a system of environmental ethics to disguise between beliefs in the need to protect the environment for human interests versus the interest or rights of animals and the environment. The project was intended to help answer questions about the relationship and and to facilitate dialogue and research about these topics.

The heuristic: 1) provides a set of terms and concepts to distinguish a broad range of environmental values and ethics (twelve types of environmental ethics are defined) 2) can be used to increase self-awareness of environmental values and ethics 3) supports value clarification efforts by those in conflict mediation by helping to identify divergent and convergent environmental beliefs 4) supports researchers, by providing philosophically based methods to systematically distinguish different aspects of environmental values and ethics.