Natural ethics is part of normative theory that instills knowledge on how to live. Just like normative ethics, natural ethics attempts to provide a general theory which tells us how we should live. However, it does not attempt to define to us the moral properties because it relies on the inherent ability of individuals to distinguish moral from immoral values through the voice of conscience (Singer, 2005.) Natural ethics are natural and just like normative ethic theories, it seeks to show how we can discover which things have what ethical features, to give a basis for ethics.
Principles of natural ethics
One of the principles of natural ethics is that it is endowed and based on nature rather than convention. In the text, no law that outlawed mining, and it was upon the miners to apply natural ethics and determine if their actions do good or bad to nature. That is the reason why those who supported mining could only tell of the good things the metals and gold brought forth. Agricola says, “without the metals; men would return to the acorns and fruits and berries in the forest” (Merchant, 1980, p. 37) . Agricola also states that there lacked enforcement to control ecological consciousness at the time of poisoning the fish and continued mining activities.
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Natural ethics also states that when determining the action that is right in a situation, we should consider the actions resulting from it; are there pleasures or pain. By seeing the outcome or the consequence of something, a person, out of natural ethics should be able to decide whether to continue with the activity or stop it. From the text, Spenser compares the earth to a woman whereby out of lust for pleasures the earth is raped and exploited and ends up in bad condition. The author says that “both mining and sex represent for Spenser the return to animality and earthly slime,” (Merchant, 1980, p. 39) If these people applied natural ethics, they would see the consequence of their actions and make their moral judgment.
References
Merchant, C. (1980). The Death Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Singer, P. (2005). Ethics and intuitions. The Journal of Ethics , 9 (3-4), 331-352.
Shafer-Landau, R. (2009). The fundamentals of ethics.
