Sacrifice

Today in class, Professor Silliman brought up an interesting point that even now a few hours after class, I am thinking about it. That point is that he said that although he'd like to live a long life, if the time came when he would sacrifice his life to better the planet then he would. This got me thinking about if I was actually willing to give up my life to make the world a better place. Would I be able to give up all the things I value to help ensure the survival of something that allows the rest of the world to hold their values? At this point, I don't know. I would like to say that I would be able to, and know that I am being one hundred precent truthful, but that isn't that case. Maybe this is because I am still young, but I feel like I haven't come close to experiencing enough in my life to be able to give up my life, even if it's got a good cause, or a cause bigger then myself as an individual. Does that make me stubborn or unreasonable? Am I to self-absorbed? Should I expect someone else to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the planet if I am not able to do it myself? Is that fair?

Morality and Law

I find the discussion between law and morality a very interesting thing, which is probably because I plan to be a lawyer at some point in life. I had never really put much thought into what laws really entailed and the thinking behind it. I found the point in which laws do not prevent all immoral action. Although the textbook's Environmental Ethics; Readings in Theory and Application, uses a somewhat old example and exaggerated example to demonstrate this point, I really liked the example of Kitty Genovese, who was stabbed to death while her neighbors could hear what happened but refused to do anything. I like this point because I can relate it to the way things work, whereas, although there are Good Samaritan laws, a person does not have the legal responsibility to help another person if they are choking, although morally, you should do whatever you can to help. Furthermore, the point of the Good Samaritan law is not make someone help someone else in need, but to instead protect someone who offers medical help to a person in danger. I find this very interesting. Before really thinking this topic over, I had thought, although I would be nervous to help someone in such a bind, that I would rush to help a person. Upon further thought, it's weird to me, who has always held the law in a high standpoint that there isn't something that really makes it so one must help in anyway they can, but instead must make a decision based off of how they feel, no matter whether there decision is morally good or bad. I also really liked the example of how there is no law preventing adultery, which is also morally bad. The logic behind this is that it doesn't effect a large group of people. If you cheat on a spouse, it's really between the two of you and the one(s) who participated in the affair. I guess this lesson caught my attention so much because of the future I see myself in having with law, and it definitely helped me think about law as more of a career that affects people in a wide array of ways, as to looking at it as a concept of what I'll do, "when I grow up."

Introduction Post

This is my first post for our blog for Environment Ethics. After today's class, I think I am actually going to be very interested in the subject matter that the class is going to go over this semester. I have never really thought about how concerned one should be for nature before today. I mean, I recycled when I was near a recycling bin. I should and can do so much more to lessen my environmental footprint. I don't think I could be a Jainist monk though. Going through the trash so I can eat people's left-overs freaks me out. I am very excited to what this course has to offer and everything that I can learn.