Making environmental ethics more practical: a model of principlism

Abstract

Environmental Ethics is a type of applied ethic whose objec- tive is to guide, using principles and rules, the analysis, the deliberation, and the resolution of conflicts that are environmental and social at the same time. Within the different theoretical approaches of Environmental Ethics, there is a tension between normative ethical level and the meth- odological level that prevents integration between the two of them. The problem of Environmental Ethics to reconcile these two orders is the issue addressed in this paper. Our proposal regarding this subject is to approach it from a theoretical strategy of mid-level principles and this is why it does not aim at suggesting a theoretical foundation of ethics, but a referential framework that makes a pluralistic outline of principles compatible with a well-defined methodology of rules and meta-rules, thus contributing to a more practical Environmental Ethics.