Environmental Virtue Ethics and the Virtue of Ecological Sensitivity

Abstract

What traits and virtues must a person possess to be considered environmentally virtuous? And further, must we recognize new human excellences specific to environmental contexts, or can the traditional virtues be 'extended' to apply to environmental interactions and relationships? Current disagreement in the environmental virtue ethics literature over how to identify and ratify environmental virtue represents a significant issue in the literature because its answer impinges upon other areas of an environmental virtue ethic's framework, including the acquisition and sufficiency of virtue, environmental practical wisdom, and the normative resources available to an environmental virtue ethic. Ronald Sandler, a proponent of non-extensionist environmental virtue ethics, has suggested the recognition of a novel human virtue called "ecological sensitivity".¹ However, Sandler left open at the time exactly what character dispositions and traits constitute that virtue, and how it ought to be fully understood. The thesis presented here attempts to identify the dispositions, attitudes, and traits that constitute ecological sensitivity (or eco-sensitivity).