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Climate Change and Virtue Ethics

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Handbook of Philosophy of Climate Change

Part of the book series: Handbooks in Philosophy ((HP))

Abstract

Over the past two decades, virtue ethicists have begun to devote increasing attention to applied ethics. In particular, the application of virtue ethical frameworks to the environmental ethics debate has flourished. This chapter reviews recent contributions to the literature in this field and highlights some strengths and weaknesses of thinking about climate change through a virtue ethical lens. Section “Two Benefits of Virtue Ethical Approaches to Climate Change” explores two benefits of applying virtue ethics to climate change: (a) we can better capture the phenomenology of our moral experience, and (b) we avoid the problem of inconsequentialism. Section “A Catalogue of Environmental Virtues” analyzes various practical proposals that have been put forward in the form of specific environmental virtues. Section “An Objection to Virtue-Oriented Approaches to Climate Change” reconstructs a fundamental objection to the idea of using a virtue ethical normative approach to tackling the urgent and imminent dangers of climate change.

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Acknowledgments

Research for this chapter was generously supported by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) [grant number AH/R012717] and a St Leonard’s College European Doctoral Stipend Scholarship (St Andrews). I also wish to thank Heather Jeffrey, Joel Joseph, and Luca Stroppa for their comments on previous drafts of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Enrico Galvagni

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  1. Enrico Galvagni
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Correspondence to Enrico Galvagni .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Guido Carli Free International University, ROMA, Roma, Italy

    Gianfranco Pellegrino

  2. Department of Political Science, Guido Carli Free University, Rome, Italy

    Marcello Di Paola

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Political Science, Guido Carli Free International University, ROMA, Roma, Italy

    Gianfranco Pellegrino

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Galvagni, E. (2023). Climate Change and Virtue Ethics. In: Pellegrino, G., Di Paola, M. (eds) Handbook of Philosophy of Climate Change. Handbooks in Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16960-2_152-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16960-2_152-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16960-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16960-2

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