Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Aldo Leopold proposed a land ethic that extended moral values and principles to nonhuman entities of the biotic community.I argue that his land ethic can be integrated with an existing moral code, namely the Golden Rule interpreted as an ethics of empathy, which promotes altruistic benevolent acts towards the land.I demonstrate that the basic moral requirements necessary to practice the Golden Rule (i.e., empathy, comparability, relationship, benevolence) can be extended to nonhuman entities.I conclude that an ecologically-integrated Golden Rule satisfies Leopold's moral requirements necessary for the extension of ethics to the land and, if practiced, makes it possible to achieve Leopold's ultimate goal, which is land health.
Author: Lynn T. Holtzman
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2242304024