Environmental Values Environmental Values
Environmental Values 6(1997): 269-279. doi: 10.3197/096327197776679095
The question this paper examines is whether or not discourse ethics is an environmentally attractive moral theory. The answer reached is: no. For firstly, nature has nothing to gain from the discourse ethical shift from monological moral reflection to discourse, as nature cannot partake in discourse. And secondly, nature (even sentient animal nature) has no socio-personal integrity, which, according to discourse ethics, it is the function of morality to protect. Discourse ethics is a thoroughly anthropocentric moral theory.
KEYWORDS: environmental ethics, animal ethics, discourse ethics, Kantian ethics, consensus
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