Diotima: The Marist Undergraduate Philosophy Journal
significant body of scholars who contend that Confucian ethics is a virtue ethic. 25 The implication is that virtue ethics supports a relational theory of change: by making virtuous decisions we can influence others. In the context of climate change, our individual decisions to limit GHG emissions can have an outsized impact. Therefore, the virtuous person has an additional responsibility to avoid emission-intensive behaviors so that they can serve as a role model for others. The magnified impact of personal GHG reductions implied by virtue ethics should strengthen individual preference to avoid GHG emissions, making virtue ethics a more effective philosophical framework for governing the morality of individual GHG emissions. Virtue ethics is a better guide than utilitarianism or deontology for regulating the morality of individual GHG emissions, because it produces workable outcomes better aligned with moral intuition. Consider an individual who must take a plane to deliver a speech that could positively impact climate policy. A deontological approach may prescribe a strict rule that does not account for the positive externalities of taking the flight. A virtuous person would recognize a social responsibility to reduce emissions on a larger scale and take the flight. However, their aversion to producing GHG emissions would likely prompt them to consider individual methods of reducing their climate impact, such as purchasing GHG offsets. Now, consider an individual who wants to bathe in a large bath with steaming water. Utilitarian calculus may allow them to value their enjoyment from the bath over the GHG harm it causes. However, this is not a workable standard if
25 David Wong, "Chinese Ethics," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2024 Edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2024/entries/ethics-chinese/.
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