Ethics, Economics and the Environment

Abstract

Over the past 30 years there has been a significant attempt to think about the possible relation between the disciplines of ethics and economics. One area in which these debates are particularly striking is climate change. In this paper I argue that engineers need to carefully consider the impact their decisions have on the environment and that the standard ethical approach used by economists in evaluating environmental damage – Utilitarianism- is an insufficiently rich approach towards that end. Instead, I outline a different kind of ethic, one that is centered on care and responsibility, and that may prove to be a more useful way for engineers to understand their role in the modern world.