Abstract
M.A. (Philosophy)
Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach (CA) lists ten capabilities that a person
must have in order to flourish, and governments have a duty to ensure that all
citizens are able to reach a threshold level of each of these capabilities. Drawing
often on the work of Breena Holland, this paper proposes that all of Nussbaum’s
capabilities depend on, to some degree, a functional environment. Though
Nussbaum includes an environmental capability at number eight on her list, her
approach fails to stipulate that a certain level of environmental quality is necessary to
support human flourishing. I claim that Nussbaum’s CA should be revised to reflect
this feature.
I argue in favour of this point using three arguments that outline the various
contributions that the environment makes to human flourishing. I show that (1) the
environment enriches and provides opportunities for meaningful life experiences, (2)
living in relation to the environment helps to develop many of our virtuous traits and
(3) the environment, particularly the services provided by its ecosystems, supports
our ability to flourish by making life in general possible. I show that the environment
only makes each of the three types of contributions if it is functioning above a certain
level. A completely decimated environment would fail to support flourishing in these
ways, and so there must be some level above total-decimation at which the
environment is able to make its contributions. I show that while identifying this exact
level poses a line-drawing problem, it is possible to have a general idea of what sorts
of environmental protection would be needed to ensure that we remain at a level
above a critically diminished environment. I propose that a specification be added to
Nussbaum’s eighth capability to highlight the critical need to protect the
environmental conditions on which human flourishing depends.
I then propose that this revised capabilities approach (RCA) can provide the basis for
a theoretically satisfactory and practically powerful environmental ethic (EE). I use
Ronald Sandler’s two conditions that an adequate EE must meet, (a) a theoretical
and (b) a practical condition, and show that a RCA meets both. (a) The theoretical
condition states than an adequate EE must consistently condemn unsustainable...