Exploration of environmental ethics: Proposal to include a personal feeling for nonhumans in environmental ethical judgments

In this thesis I explore the ethical grounds of nonanthropocentric ethics and Japan's environmental education. A personal feeling for nonhumans should be included in ethical judgments about whether an action upon the natural environment is good or not. The intrinsic value of the environment appears to be a human expression of feelings of approval or disapproval rather than a factual statement of properties of the environment. A nonanthropocentric ethicist's attempt to establish an objective principle of conservation for the sake of the environment by identifying an intrinsic value of the environment is misleading. Environmental ethical inquiries demand a more elaborative process of contemplation that draws equally upon human knowledge and emotion. This approach is in keeping with the potential of how humans should treat the natural environment instead of inculcating in people the belief that adhering to a specific value or principle results in conservation of the environment.