Question

The Land Pyramid

Leopold’s philosophical versus ecological ethic

The Four Criteria of Problem Solving (Baxter)

Answer 1

• Four Criteria For Solving Problems
• William Baxter was a law professor at Stanford University. He identified himself as a speciesist, believing that “any moral consideration of animals is in relation to humans”.
• In terms of environmental ethics, he stated that humans have obligations to how we treat non-human animals, but our interest in preserving animals is for the sake of human satisfaction.
• In Baxter’s article, People or Penguins, he establishes four criteria when attempting to solve problems of human organization, each point being fairly broad.
• 1. The Freedom of one individual should be as much freedom as long as it doesnt interfere with the freedom of others
• 2. Waste is bad, therefore one must use skills, resources, and labor up to the greatest amount of satisfaction of humans
• 3. One must treat an individual as an end rather and means of being used for the betterment of others
• 4. Each individual should have preserved opportunities and incentives in the pursuance of tthe greatest satisfaction.
• He states further that only humans have the right to make decisions about the well being of other non-human animals, for they should solely be regarded by what they do to benefit humans.
• Baxter tries to justify his point by stating that the land and species that alter the environment, “earth’s crust made mountains and seas,” was not regarded as right or wrong. Moreover, we cannot give one being moral superiority over another.
• Baxter recognizes that there is a “trade-off relationship between humans and the environment. There are costs to cleaning up the environment but he believes this costs outweigh the cost of losing natural beauty, for natural beauty gives us more satisfaction over material goods.
• Due to time limit,remaining questions can be asked as another question,they will be answered,thankyou for your cooperation