The Study On Plumwood’s Thought Of Environmental Ethics

In my paper, the first chapter discusses the theory origin of Plumwood’s thought in environmental ethics. Plumwood’s thought in environmental ethics is based on the relations between women and the nature, critically absorbs the feminism theory and originates from some controversy about the ethics of environment. Plumwood’s thought in environmental ethics also cannot leave her growth and life experience.The secnd chapter mainly expounds the Plumwood s analysis and criticism about the dualism. She thought there are five basic features in the dualism, the dualism is closely contacted with classical logic.With these analysises she gave the paths of dualism to escape.The third chapter mainly expounds Plumwoods criticism about Plato philosophical, mechanistic dominated the female and nature and the other inferior class by reason in the Plato philosophy、Cartesian mechanicalism and Lockean empiricism. Plato’s denigration about women, animals and the slave reflected that he was hostile to life and didn’t admit the value of life. He soluted the breakage between the human and the nature with the death. Plumwood thought it was the need of the society. Descartes distinguished between mind and body,and changed the existence related with the nature into a machine which was possible to control the nature and the other groups for the human.Locke hyperseparated the material properties and scientific discourse which influenced to the development of mechanicalism and economic relations and political relations and gender relations in the contemporary society.The fourth chapter explains Plumwood’s criticism and reconstruction to the human centralism. Plumwood thought Paul Taylor established Biological center ethics in Kant’s rational elite framework won’t succeed. Reason is that he didn’t use critically of Kant’s emotional-rational dualism.And Tom·Reagan gave animal rights point of view. Reason is that he used a derived from the concept of human beings.Plumwood thought deep ecology "self realization" only care to the contiunty between self and other, ignore the difference, And no escape dualism. So the theory or human centralism. In these critical basis, Plumwood claims to establish an based on the ethics of virtue, want to rebuild the rational, but an effort to instal another, less hierarchical, more democratic and plural identity.