 As you know, ethics has been one of the central theme or one of the branches of philosophy. So, today in my lecture, I would be discussing mostly on the Philosophical Foundation for Environmental Ethics. Now, when we look at ethical issues, what is that now takes us to discourse on environmental studies. That is the central theme of our talk today. So, before we begin our discussion, we need to know what is ethics. Ethics as you all know is about the theory of morals and every human endeavor tries to look at the other aspect of the world or the other members in the society and theorize them. So, the theoretical aspects of philosophical discourse on ethics, something which we are going to discuss in the beginning of today's lecture. And I am sure you would like it in the sense that it will invite a lot of questions and during our discussion, we will have a fruitful discussion. So, that is what is expected from this course. Now, when I say that ethics is about the theory of morals, morals refer to custom, conduct, activities that are looked upon as good, bad, right, wrong, correct, incorrect. So, mostly whenever we talk about our activities, our actions and it is inevitable that we will perform various kinds of actions and we will be engaged in doing things. So, this whole interactive process of human life needs to be evaluated and ethics plays a role there to support us in evaluating our deeds, our actions. And therefore, ethics talks about right and wrong, correct or incorrect, right action, wrong action, correct action or incorrect action. So, we do praise an action saying that it is good or bad. So, the ethics is all about the study of morals in this sense that our actions are being evaluated and it has been consistently evaluated so that we live a meaningful life. So, far as the meaningfulness of life is concerned, we need to understand the theoretical underpinnings of this debate on ethics in general and environmental ethics in particular because our discussion should link to the debate on environmental issues. So, in that context we need to see how ethical principles are operating in our society and how these principles are being conformed by various institutions that regulate our activities. So, therefore, it is important that how values are guiding principles of human actions and how do they regulate human actions. Being the guiding principles, they have the power to regulate human actions. In that context, we need to understand the notion of ethics, the notion of values, etc. So, as I said that it is all about human activities, human conduct and human judgment. So, whenever we are performing any action, we need to judge. So, this capacity to judge, the capacity to digest certain things pertains to the discourse of ethics. So, human beings per se has this ability to perform not only actions, but ability to perform valued actions. So, and this is indeed or is total says is a rational ability. Now, we need to understand how does human rationality has made an important role in understanding nature, in understanding human environment, etc. Is there a flow in that understanding? Is there a lecuna in that understanding? Because that is important unless we are very self-critical about our everyday engagement with the world, we will not be able to create a new ideas, new value system or new principles, which will be the guiding source of guiding source. So, it is in that context, we need to talk about how human ability, rationality as a human ability plays a very important role in formulating moral principles, not only at an individual level, but also at a collective level. So, and we will come back to that discourse on human rationality little later on. So, when I talk about the theorization of morals, I do give importance to this idea that certain values are to be practiced, certain values do exist. It is about the existence of values, it is about the practicing the values and it is about the preservation of values. So, how do we preserve certain values? Because values we practice find at every societal context, values are do practiced, but at a higher realm of this discourse, we need to talk about how values remain as one of the guiding principle as I suggested earlier. So, therefore, preservation of values is important and values can be only preserved if and only if we give importance to these institutions are not only the regulatory bodies, but these institutions are being created to maintain values. So, that is what I mean when I talk about existence of values, practice of values and preservation of values for the future. So, it is in that context we need to talk about values. Why there is a need to talk about values? We understand that our whole engagement is value centric, but what is the need of talking about values? What is the need of talking about or theorizing morals? Now, the need is basically this as Anna Petition writes, I quote Anna Petition's words in the beginning of his very famous book on everyday ethics and social change, she writes that we all live in a difficult time. We face social and environmental problems that are massive in scope for which effective solutions are elusive at best. These problems are well symbolized by global warming which threatens non-human spaces, unique ecosystems and human communities equally. Now, if you look at this writer, this quotation, one understands that global warming is one of the central issues that environmental studies deals with or climate change is one of the central issues that environmental studies deals with. Pollution, soil erosion, etc will be equally an important topic of our discussion on environmental ethics. But it is also depressing that whenever we talk about the future generation, whenever we talk about the future of humanity, these questions makes us very depressed because we do not have a hope for future. The future looks like a kind of a blank sheet because we do not know what it will lead to. So, it is in that context, the whole idea of hope for living, living a meaningful life as I mentioned earlier is coming to stop. So, it is in that context we need to discuss that why ethics are important, why do we need ethics. So, therefore, Petition says that there are several things in our social life which are very depressing, which are making human living hopeless. And similarly, there are several things at the realm of environment, one finds very depressing. So, these are the things like climate change, pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, etc are the important topics which environmental ethics deals with. Now, the question is what does ethics do? Now, ethics tries to, as I said, tries to talk about values, try to theorize values, what is good, what is bad, what is right, what is wrong, what is correct, what is incorrect, what is to be condemned, what is to be praised. So, all these become part of our ethical studies. But then when we talk about ethics or values as a guiding principle, we also need to look at that whether there is any evidence to justify our moral claims. Is there any evidence to justify my judgment? Is there any evidence to justify the decision that I take or the act that I perform? So, therefore, it is important to look for a justification. So, the whole idea that human beings are capable of formulating judgment, the whole idea that human beings are capable of making enlightened choice very informed argument in various platforms implies that they have justification to support their actions or their choices. So, therefore, we always look for a justificatory reason. So, therefore, at the same time we try to be critical about it. So, a critical evaluation and a reevaluation becomes part of this rational discourse of value formulation, value redesigning, reformulation etc. So, therefore, in every society one finds that there is an up and downs. There is a kind of a movement from traditional society to modern society as we find nowadays that this whole idea of a post-modern society becoming more relevant to various theoretical understanding of the world. So, therefore, it is important that how such progress is maintained in our theoretical discourse in our understanding of the world. So, we also need to initiate this question here that how such progress can be made when we talk about environment as our subject. Environment is a kind of a subject of our study. So, therefore, our scope of morality has to be enlarged, has to be enhanced so that we can accommodate, we can include various entities that are not only living entities, but are also non-living entities which are precious for human living. And where we talk about sustainable development in the context of social sciences, in the context of economics, we also try to see that how such an engagement will be a value-related engagement. So, therefore, we need to broaden our discourse on morality because morality is not all about human engagement with other human beings. It also is an engagement with various biotic beings and various entities that are living, that are existing in and around us. So, therefore, we need to talk about what kind of duties, what are our obligations and what kind of virtue we need to maintain in our everyday life so that this meaningful living is possible. So, it is in this context I have quoted Light and Ralston who writes, I think extends all our duties, obligations, virtues and the vices as we interact with each other. See, this interaction, I will come back to this idea of interaction, as the interaction seems to me is a very technical term. So, we do interact with our fellow beings. One does interact with somebody who is sitting beside you, but is this interaction deep enough to make a value judgment possible? So, that is the question which we need to address because we all know that living things are important for us. We all know that there are species which are in extinct day by day and they are important for us, but how deep is this understanding? That is the question which environmental ethics raises in the context of deep ecology which we will be discussing tomorrow. But I emphasize on this idea of interaction or engagement which has to be ethical, which has to be deep enough to understand the value of the other. Unless we reflect on this, unless we are sensitive enough, reflect on this, we will fail to recognize the value of other. It will not be a logical failure, it will be a moral failure. So, there are two kinds of failures which you all know that sometimes when we are doing some calculation, we fail to calculate and we do not get a result. That would be a kind of a logical failure because either you are wrong in adding something or subtracting something, but when we perform a wrong action, when we are committed to something, but we do not show our commitment, we do not show our obligation to those facts. So, it is in that context, our failures are indeed moral failures. So, to live a meaningful life, one has to re-enchant what kind of personality he is. One has to re-enchant his own self. Unless until we re-enchant our own self, we will not be able to understand what we are. So, one of the questions that I will be discussing today in the second part of my lecture is the question about what we are. It is precisely because this question will help us renewing or help us in searching an answers to this idea that further whatever action that we perform in our everyday life is something significant. So, unless such a renewal is welcomed, unless such a renewal is initiated at an individual level, ethics has no meaning. Particularly, the kind of ethics that we will be discussing today has no meaning. So, therefore, it is very, the urge here is that we need to initiate certain sensitive outlook and therefore, to do that we need to renew our self. We need to revisit our self and see whether our understanding has been a correct understanding, whether our understanding has any significance at all for the society. So, it is this kind of thing that I need to look at along with you and I hope that you will have some understanding of ethics. Now, as I said in the beginning of my lecture, ethics is all about theorizing morals. It deals with the study of human action and it regulates human conduct and it helps us performing better actions. It rescues us from committing certain moral failures. So, if ethics is all about that, there are several parts in ethics. One idea is that there is a general study about ethics in the form of goodness, where we talk about what is good and how the concept of good is been generally formulated, etc., etc. And we have another kind of a discussion where we talk about study of right action. But we are not really interested today to discuss all about that. We are rather interested to talk about applied ethics and environmental studies particularly environmental ethics deals with applied ethics or is a part of applied ethics. So, it is in that context. Now, let us have a brief discussion on this point that what is general study of this notion of goodness that we talk about. When we talk about goodness, we do initiate a question, what are the components of good life. I was talking about what is meaningful about life. So, I was rather interested and that 21st century is interested in initiating this debate that whether the life that we are living is meaningful life. And you may recollect, some of you may recollect when you had come here for the training program, we were talking about Socrates. Socrates is one of the very famous slogan that an examined life is worth living. In other words, an unexamined life is not worth living. This is what Socrates had said, an unexamined life is not worth living. So, one can revisit this Socrates debate on a meaningfulness of life. And this revisiting possibly we will do in our course of studies that how meaningful it is to talk about environment. And how does environment affects us and how we are being affected by the crisis that the environment is facing today. So, is this crisis harming our meaningful living is something that is very important. In that context, one can think of how meaningful the life is. One can also think of various things that what are the classical sources of ethics. I have pointed out the three major points. One is about the religious ethics. All traditional society or we will talk about religion as a source of morals. There are also debates about duty-based ethics which has been initiated by Kant. And there are there are a number of people who have related this Kantian notion of ethics. You have heard of Immanuel Kant, the name of Immanuel Kant, whose idea is about that duty for duty sake, not duty for deity sake. A religious understanding of ethics will promote the idea that whatever duty that we perform, it is for deity sake, not for duty sake. So, there is a difference which Kant is making. And many people, many philosophers have tried to relate the Kant's understanding of values with the Bhagavad Gita's understanding of values, particularly the notion of niskam karma. Now, how an action has to be performed without contemplating on its consequence? So, action has to be performed or duty has to be performed for duty sake. So, that is what is the geontological ethics all about. Now, the consequentialists on the other hand are utilitarians. So, they give importance to the consequence. Now, in ethics, one very interesting concept is this that there is, now the whole idea is about means and end. Now, the consequentialists give importance to the notion of end and becomes their primary goal, whereas the geontologists who argue that if the means is good, then the end will be good. So, that is the basic difference between the geontologist and consequentialist. The consequentialist, we suppose that if something is good, then it should be good for large number of people or the maximum happiness for maximum number of people. So, this is what is their slogan. So, they try to quantify the notion of goodness. So, it is in that context. Now, this means and end relationship are something relevant here, because every as I said that whenever we perform an action, we try to see that there is an evidence to it and this evidence is nothing but a kind of a just. So, the whole idea is that whenever we to perform any action, we look for some justificatory reason. Now, so therefore, our the reason plays two roles here. One is the role every individual is rational, that is one kind of reason, which is called theoretical reason. Then the second type of reason is practical reason. So, the second kind of reason is called practical reason. There is a theoretical reason and another one is practical reason. And theoretical reason is that every individual human being is a rational being. That is the theoretical pre-supposition. The practical reason is that that every action is performed with some reason in mind keeping some reason in mind. So, that reason is a reason which makes our action valid action. That reason is something which makes our action moral action good, bad, right, wrong, correct, incorrect. So, there is a practical reason which plays an important role and this practical reason prepares a kind of a means that why I should perform action. Now, what kind of benefit it will give me if I perform action? Will that be beneficial for my colleagues? Will that be beneficial for my students? Will that be beneficial for the entire community which living in a campus or the entire society which is a part of mind? So, this extension, the scope can be enlarged. So, the whole idea is that what kind of means that an individual adopts to perform action and that means is very important and that is the part of the practical reason. So, when we talk about values or curation of values it is important that we make a distinction between means and the end. The idea here is that there are several kinds of ethical theories where the first could be a religion and or the theories are like deontological theory. There are also schools who believes in emotive theory but I have not discussed all that. I am planning my plan is to give a kind of a general account of ethics and how does environmental ethics fit into that discourse that is the whole agenda here today and the other one is the utilitarian ethics which we will go back to the kind of utilitarian studies maybe tomorrow. So, environmental ethics as I mentioned to you that is an applied ethics. Now, what is an applied ethics? Applied ethics is that where we ethical principles include particular area of concern such as environment, medicine, engineering, business, biotechnology etcetera. So, the scope of moral discourse is very limited when we talk about a specific notion of values and value engagement. So, environmental ethics is an applied ethics or is part of an applied ethics. So, we need to study, we need to understand that environmental ethics as an applied ethics. So, who counts morally? We said that our whole engagement has to be a meaningful engagement. Our whole engagement is will be meaningful if and only if we reexamine ourselves, we try to relook at certain relations interactions which we have been you know engaged with. So, therefore, the question is that who counts morally and why do we if at all we count morally then why do we count morally? Morally about our engagement with endangered spaces or our engagement with or our interaction with at this whole activities called a deep frustration which has been going on or the pollution whether it is water pollution or air pollution or the loss of biodiversity, loss of soil etcetera. So, these activities or these events if we encounter in our everyday life how we are being affected by those events or what kind of approach, what kind of ethical relation we have when we encounter such things. So, therefore, environmental ethics if I sum up this whole idea that and the whole environmental ethics is going to reexamine human nature relationship. The idea is we want to reexamine this whole engagement between the human on the one side and the non-humans or the environment on the other side. So, or the nature as a whole on the other side. So, this is what is about environmental ethics. Can we have some questions? Is it clear to all of you? I can take up one or two questions here. Is there any doubt? Good afternoon sir. Good afternoon. So, you are talking about environmental ethics. Yes. And you talked something about Nishkama Yoga in Gita. Yes. And means I just really want to appreciate the effort that you put in this lecture sir, but I have a small doubt that you talked about the reason. I mean what is the motive behind a particular action? Yes. So, that decides the what do you say whether the action is good or bad. Yes. Sir, can you put some what means can you please explain that in some broader concept? Yes. This whole idea about action being good or bad. Now, when we judge a particular action, we try to judge it keeping a standard in mind. Now, who decides that standard? Does the individual himself the performer himself decide the standard? If yes, then the source is the self itself. So, in that context, I asked my concerns or I look at my individual rational ability to judge a particular action or to justify why I have done it. But if the source the standard the source of the standard is some religion, let us say. So, then I try to draw certain principles from the religious texts or some religious authorities. So, in that context, the religion decides what is good and bad. Human reason, you know is submissive. Human reason does not play much role there. But if you talk about say that the social principles, the moral principles, the standards are been socially formulated or collectively formulated, meaning thereby that the whole principles are formulated by one particular community. Then that is that becomes the source. It is in that context. Is that clear? Yes. So, I just wanted to one thing why this problem of ethics is more coming from last 30-40 years, the time we had more we have more urbanization in India. So, why this is that? We are living with the nature in harmony with the nature since long. What had happened over the period of time in just 30-40 years? Just kindly throw some light on that. Yes, yes. You were right. Now, this whole, you know, if you if you read Blackwell anthology on environmental ethics says that environmental ethics as a discipline, the theoretical discipline is started from last 30 years. You were right. Now, last 30 years there are visible effects in our society. The visible effect in terms of if you look at the kind of diseases that humanity is encountering, the visible effects in the form of climate that we experience in our everyday life either in the form of global warming or in the form of pollution, which is again related to disease. And then there is a kind of an alarm situation. We need to respond to that. The question is human humanity has always you know felt that they are responsible for the things that are happening in and around them. So, this whole idea is to develop certain mechanism ethics. We will talk about certain to develop certain normative mechanism rather so that we do not encounter the kind of problem that we are encountering today. So, today if we are talking about environmental ethics or if our concern has becoming double it is not only for ourselves but also for our future generation that what kind of society we are you know or we will be giving to our future community or future generation. So, that has become you know a major concern for us and ethic helps us or guides us in preparing a kind of an normative framework in which we all not only conduct ourselves but also help in developing or a kind of a good society which will or good environment which will be good for the future generation. So, it is in that context ethics is important today. Thank you sir. Yeah, welcome. Is there any ethics in context to the pollution control of air and water or code of conduct to reduce the pollution? See at present I am talking about what is ethics, how these standards are being made. Now, if you look at that then the whole idea is to stop polluting water to stop or restricting the air pollution etc. But the kind of society in which we are we all live does not allow us to do that is not it because the form of life that we have adopted is not allowing us to stop. So, for example, I keep on using my bike the industry keep on you know plumping waste to the river etc. Because we need to develop certain mechanisms, we need to develop certain similarly a normative mechanisms so that we restrict the kind of actions that we are habituated to perform. So, I am not saying that you stop it today and that is how things will be stopped. No and it is in that context people are talking about the whole academia is talking about sustainable development. So, we need to develop some kind of a mechanism some kind of a golden means so that everything is possible within our rational meaningful legal. I hope it is clear. One more question is there sir though we are following our ethics, but others are not following the ethics. In this situation what should be the our action? Now, you are being ethical and others are your colleagues are not ethical. You can always suggest them to become you know ethical persons. You can always influence them people will follow. See once look at Gandhi. Gandhi was so influential because he was a performer he was performing action. Ethics today in 21st century is not about ideas. Ethics is about action. Now the situation is such that people are really admiring those performer who are performing it in their everyday life. Suppose I am being ethical then automatically the surroundings in which I leave people will be influenced that yes he is ethical. If I can influence at least one person is that not enough? If we think about country to country the ethics of India, ethics of China and ethics of America like that but in this contest Indian psychology will be different, Indian physiology will be different, China is different. In that constant if we see towards the environment then how it is possible to maintain all the peoples in a single contest. No no we so far as environment is concerned we cannot subscribe to any relative models. So for example it is their ethics or it is China's ethics it is American ethics it is Indian kind of ethical model okay. We cannot really subscribe to that kind of methodology or framework whether what we can do and what is ought to be done here is this that we need to prepare a kind of a universal model because environmental crisis is affecting everyone. Environmental problems will not look at whether you are Chinese, whether you are Indian, whether somebody is American. Look at the Indians who are living in America because today you are a global citizen you are no more a citizen of this country alone. You are somehow economically, academically no related to a citizen to some other country is not it. If you develop a good paper will it not be read by Americans or Chinese? Of course it will be read it is not it. So we are all global citizens today and therefore we need to improve ourselves in a global model and it is in that context look at our search of earth mission. How meaningful it is can we say that our psychology is like this we should not improve our psychology we ought to improve our psychology otherwise we will be victim of several diseases that will affect our life is not it directly or indirectly the problem is we when we throw darts we do not care for it this is not mine this is not my job to do it it is somebody else but when my own son or daughter is affected or when my neighbor is being affected when my student is been affected then oh this is wrong don't we say that. So that kind of ethical sensitivity need to be cultivated among ourselves so that we live up to the 21st century demands is not it. So we are global citizens we are no more a citizen of this nation only. Yes sir thank you sir. Welcome yes sir. Good afternoon sir. Good afternoon. My question is what is metaethics and how it is applied in EIS study environmental impact study. No no no as I told you that there are several parts in ethics one branch is metaethics another branch could be moral psychology another branch could be what is good life. So there are several branches in ethics environmental ethics is part of applied ethics not metaethics. So now let me clarify what is metaethics since you have initiated this question it is important maybe for somebody else and yourself that metaethics is when we talk about ethical principles and existing ethical principle. Now those existing ethical principles need to be explained through certain logical presuppositions okay otherwise we cannot explain any ethical principles. So the presupposed normative principles is something to do with our metaethics and our human theoretical reason helps us explain metaethics but environmental ethics is part of applied ethics not metaethics. Sir my question is who is major theory of environmental ethics tells that the environmental deserves a kind of direct moral consideration that is merely derived from human interest. Yes now we will be discussing I gave a general account of ethics. Now in my next slot I will go back to this idea of a anthropocentric approach and non-anthropocentric approach the anthropocentric approach has been damaging the environmental concerns. So therefore the 21st century people are more concerned to develop a new ethics called life-centric ethics that will be helpful to understand environmental problems more clearly and significantly. This will be last question then we will go to our next you know part of the lecture. A reporter was banned alive in UP while they were reporting on wet filling of land. Okay. So in this what is the importance of studying ethics and ethical value of Indian people because we know most of our politicians and others are corrupted. Many of them has communal cases against them. Okay. Almost 40 percent when the parliament has communal cases against them. So how we educate our next generation about ethical value? How can we? Is it only a classroom activity or is it does it have any real practical implication on it? Of course it has you know I think we should I will take up this question and then we can go back to our previous sections where now I would I would like to suggest this that corruption has been part of human society since long. Okay. And there are several kinds of corruption. One very important aspect of corruption is the moral corruption. When people try to think you know below the standards the below the the ethical values then they try to corrupt the society. So societal values deteriorate starts deteriorating when individual himself does not follow it in the everyday life. This is one thing. Now to make a general statement that our politicians are corrupt and we are not it is it is not always true. We are equally corrupt in many realms. Okay. In many realms we are in the individual is equally corrupt. Say for example now I should not beat my children. Okay. Let us take this as a kind of a moral statement that it is not advisable to harm now physically you know the children's but I do beat sometimes when I am angry. Is that not a moral corruption? So corruption happens at various realms of individual thinking. One possibly which is more visible in a the outer world is the the political corruption which were but there are several realms in which corruption happens. So we need to restrict ourselves and therefore my basic urge was that we need to renew our own self. So this kind of a renewal will bring back our original self the benign self which is a responsible self which is a committed self which is a moral self after all and once we are capable of you know uncovering that self I do not think in a society or in a family there will be any such trouble. There will be no chaos in any society in any institutions once capable enough rationally to restrict their corrupting attitudes. Thank you. Rafa Khan sir. Yes sir. Sir my question to you is related to sustainable development. Whatever we have learned for last two weeks regarding the sustainable development in economics has been an important part of that. Of course. And today's after your wonderful session I will say ethics without ethics we could not dream of a sustainable development. Thank you. And what we personally feel is that ethics economics and sustainable development these three things are merely opposing each other. So how we could make a perfect balance and we could have a dream sustainable development. Yes the question will be like this how we can redefine our approach so that we live not only a sustainable life but our values will sustain for long values will sustain for not only for all future generation to come. I think that would be you know the question. Now if that is the question then the we need to reform ourselves first. We need to know what we want because for last say 100 years or so people have accepted a kind of a life where there are mass consumption where there are you know a massive kind of a you know as an effect of mass consumption you have generated a waste and we do not know how to dispose the waste. We don't know but slowly if you look at for last several years 30 40 years people have started you know contemplating on renewal energy people have started contemplating on how to reuse waste etc etc. So there is a sense of development. There is a sense of good development rather happening in our economic modern and it is also due to the fact that our whole engagement with the society has changed. So that economics is only one reflection now when somebody else was talking about a political corruption. Now today look at it is not that corruption is happening today there were societies which were you know which have encountered rampant corruptions but if you take the statistics corruption has been restricted been you know to some extent and it is possible to restrict it. It is possible because we look for an alternative model we look for a more developed society so that we live a better life. So it is in that context our alternative outlook is something for future generation again is something praise over the and since we and humanity always like to develop think of a society which has not aspired for development. Development in all prospective not only economic prospective but in all perspectives I think is that clear. Yes sir thank you very much sir. Thank you let us go back to our lecture. So let us come back to our discussion on environmental ethics as an applied ethics. Many people have had a misunderstanding that it is about metaethics no it is not about metaethics it is an applied ethics where certain rules and standards are applied to limited areas of research or problematic areas like environment like the use of medicine like our engineering activities business activities etc etc. So when we restrict our scope we scope of ethical engagement we talk about applied ethics. So it is so our concern here is environment and how meaningfully we can engage ourselves with the environment and this meaningful engagement will help us enlightening about our approach towards the environment. So it is in that context I was talking about environmental ethics as an applied ethics. Now this re-examination is basically the re-examination between the nature and human engagement is basically to talk about how this problem further pollution loss of biodiversity etc. Figure in disciplinary approach because we are all academicians we try to understand the society we try to understand the world in a particular way. So therefore academic understanding a disciplinary approach is necessary otherwise you ask any common man they know that yes I am polluting everyday when I take my bike out when I take my car out I am contributing to that pollution but that is not the question which and the pollution is something wrong that is a you know yes or no question but when we are engaged in academic activities our approach is little different we try to understand theoretically how good it is to study environment and what kind of philosophical foundation that is necessary to talk about a proper environmental ethics or where have we gone wrong in talking about ethics because the kind of problem that we encounter today we find that yes something is wrong then where we have gone wrong in understanding reality. So therefore environmental ethics as I said is a branch of ultimately branch of philosophy and we need to look at how what kind of philosophy is necessary to understand environment meaningfully. So therefore our understanding is about the human non-human and the nature for all in danger it is not that environment is a concept which we are trying to understand we in the environment we also figure the human does figure within and the realm of the environment so and the non-human of course non-human also is part of that so environment is a very you know if you define environment it is very large the scope is really large and how our life is been threatened how we as a community okay because when I say that it is not harmful to human beings therefore we will do it now that kind of approach has not been very successful it in fact it has failed it has shown that where we have morally gone wrong. So therefore environmental crisis today is a threat to the entire community it is not that human humanity alone is experiencing the crisis the non-human do experience the crisis and so also the nature who speaks to us in different language. So therefore the environmental ethics has to change its language in order to speak to the people in order to speak to in order not to communicate the real issues of environment. So environmental crisis is a threat to the entire community it does not leave one community and embraces other actually it embraces all of us together. So therefore the practical approach will to know resources to which need to conservation or creation of national park or ecological movements have been very very significant in this regard. Now how ethics has been studied how values are carried by nature could best be described often asking whether nature is morally considerable in itself rather than only indirectly morally considerable. See so far we have treated the environment or the nature as a whole as something outside us something which does not include us this consideration has been the reason for our moral failures. So therefore we need to revisit us we need to prepare a ground so that we not only protect ourselves we know we protect our own well-being the human well-being and also protect the non-human non-humans which are living within an around you know this environment. So the whole issue of moral foundation has to be changed the whole concept of moral foundation has to be changed in order to prepare a kind of environmental norms or in order to control pollution we in order to save the end endangered spaces we need to revamp the whole foundation of morals that has been you know accepted as something relevant. So it is in that context I will bring this concept of anthropocentrism in a anthropocentric world view where humans are considered as morally only morally significant and everything in the universe everything in the nature are only for human use. So that kind of approach that kind of moral foundation has created this crisis okay we will go into it in details after some time. So my basic idea here is that the change of moral foundation will not only protect the end endangered species but also will help us seeing or envisioning a kind of a new world where we will find that everything is everything will be better than the existing one. So there you know to to have a better outlook about the better world we need to see this concept of environment in in two ways scientifically we have been looking at it environment as an objective phenomenon that something a particular river say Ganga has been polluted and that affects people who are living in its surrounding okay. So so there is a kind of a causal relation in which we all live with our environment. When we have this kind of understanding we treat environment as a kind of an objective phenomenon okay because environment is real environmental issues are real and environment affects us you know this kind of interaction this kind of engagement has been very is a causal engagement but there is another mode of engagement which human lives you know which human lives in their everyday life where they treat environment as a field of significance. Now how human beings are living in that field is something very important if we would like to change the very foundation of morals morals of anthropocentric worldview then we I think we need to look at environment as a field of significance. Now this field doesn't believe in a causal relation alone I am not saying that we should give up this idea of a causal relation the scientific vision of understanding the reality I am not saying that I am saying that the scientific vision of understanding the environment or the reality as a whole must go along with the understanding of an intentional relationship with environment. So when I say environment as a field of significance human beings are intentionally connected with the environment say for example when somebody is dying the the reporter the as our fellow participants said the reporter is dying because of some reason. Now that has affected us that has been affecting us and this is an intentional effect because I am able to relate myself to that individual who has been doing his job well who has been committed to to his profession. So this is an intentional relation and I said that when we talk about and moral sensitivity if we try to uncover that real self I was talking about uncovering the real self the renewal of the self or the reenchantment of the self I was really keeping this in mind that we are all intentionally related people around me trees and objects around me are not only physically related but also intentionally related we have been really not taking into account this intentional relations. So environment as a field of significance talks about an intentional relation where the environment is intentional object. So this idea of one of the very famous philosopher David Cooper talks about it in his paper called the idea of environment. Cooper essay has been published in 1992 and there are critiques who have also talked about it but Cooper has been very important in this regard that he is bringing to us a new way of addressing environmental crisis. Now look at this example that I have been cited now our engagement a student who goes to school every day it is not about what he studies there and what kind of lesson he is learning that is part of his schooling activities but apart from that he is also associated and very deeply associated with the physical structure the physical environment of schooling the trees the plants the garden the playground etc and the walls of the classroom so there and that is very important and that creates a very binding relationship this intentional relationship that I was talking about which is relevant to human form of life and human form of you know valued living also incorporates this that how deeply we are and how intentionally we are connected to our physical surroundings after 10 years of schooling when I go back to my school I find that yes this is where I was sitting and this is the world of blackboard which you know our teacher used to write and we used to have fun writing something else so this is familiarity is something which brings the self you know to a physical reality and the physical reality is no more a physical object there it is it becomes an intentional object the object starts living in my experience and that is what is called a field an intentional field and that association that familiarity is something significant significant to construe what would be our normative relationship with the world in general or our surroundings in particular and this is what you know see in the in the beginning of my lecture today I refer to Anna Peterson's that how dangerous the life is and the kind of life that we are living now I bring back to another important statements of Peterson where he says that we know relations of love and solidarity even if these are fragile and fragmentary we know connectedness with other people and with members of other spaces we play freely and joyfully we feel satisfaction in taking care of those need us and being cared for now this is what a human being is now you cannot really as my fellow participant was on a pointing out now this is what this is how Indians leave this is how a Chinese my fellow Chinese leave and this is how my you know Americans leave now we cannot divide our society the humanity like this when it comes to ethical questions when it comes to our basic concern for life life as a whole we need to dream for a good society keeping this in mind that what kind of relationship we make with our fellow beings with our institutions and how what kind of solidarity we exhibit in our everyday life it may be fragmentary it may be temporary but we do create relations are we not creating relations every day do we not make friends and friendship is not a fragile bond it is not fragile precisely because if at all our interest is genuine we can keep sustaining it we can keep preserving it as we preserve values as we preserve our antique things now this is now you may be knowing suppose I have seen my grandfather sitting on the armchair I tried to see that armchair now is now after my grandfather's death I do not really see is an empty chair whenever I look at that chair I see that my grandfather is swinging there sitting relaxing and in a happy mode and that is what is you know renews myself in a better way so it does not make really it does not make an individual a fragile being rather it it actually consolidates our understanding about the world and we find that we are even if somebody is absent we connect ourselves to that so even if suppose you know I was given another example of the and the people who goes to the school in the example of a schooling life now even if you find that a particular tree is cut suppose the mango tree is cut is no more existing there we feel very sorry about it because we fail to connect we fail to connect so that failure is something you know creates a crisis in my life because I cannot really consolidate myself I cannot really gather myself in in in a holistic way so it is when we talk about an intentional field the field which helps me understanding a holistic world view the the field which really helps me needing all the beings together and create a kind of a world where the world in which I live the environment in which I live I care for it and when I start caring as my fellow friend was saying that I am only moral and others are not that is not true moment I start doing things rightly and I enjoy doing it and I care for it I also find that others have done it and we have n number of moral exemplars look at Gandhi look at Buddha look at Martin Luther King I mean how many examples you you will find many examples go back to the history now these exemplars the moral exemplars are the person who have shown us you know who have directed us in a better path okay so they have been successful in directing us because connected themselves with the other in our approach today in 21st century when we talk about globalization when we talk about a global economy we only emphasize that what is good for me what is valuable for me I me becomes the primary concern what I will gain out of it and this sense of individualism has in fact driven us in a wrong direction what Charles Taylor calls is a malaise is one of the malaise of 21st century that is individualism is a threat to better world we need to renew ourselves we need to connect ourselves to the world we need to connect ourselves to our neighborhood to our family members in such a way that we cherish a good life and once we start caring ourselves others will also look at us so so this is a kind of now an intentional relationship which we need to assert in our understanding of the environment so and living in an environment in in this connection is like living at home this is the famous phrase of Martin Heidegger one of the 20th century leading philosophers of the world who says that every species lives in his own world okay every person has his own world now when we start living in the world we do not it it gives a immense strength it gives an immense strength of connectedness okay where the individual spaces or an individual being knows how to live I mean one does not really consciously do any action unconsciously performs better action once I I take up that habit that speaking truth is something valuable then I start speaking truth consciously but eventually after few years I will be only you know speaking truth because I have started living in that world of truthfulness so this is what is very important and each species when starts living in an environment they live you know a carefree life they live they do not care what others think they do not really care how others value it because they live a valued life and that is very important I think that one has to keep that in mind that how relevant the kind of knowledge is and how practical it is to live an unreflective lifetime and create a sense of familiarity in our surroundings so this is I think you know is very important when I talk about non-human species for example now look at you all know that now the IIT Powai has a lake called Powai Lake is situated near a lake there are several kinds of species living there and they live freely they do not take into consideration whether we are living here or not like we all live freely we do not take into account whether somebody else is living there or not now this is something a very important way of relating and interacting with the environment we will reflect on it and my next episode of of this lecture called environment and ecological self so I as I told you that there are two ways of understanding the notion of environment one is looking at the subjective way the intentional mode in which we try to reform our attitude we try to develop new attitude or to try to cherish our you know moral attitude and the kind of feelings that we have for the beings or the entities which are around us and there is a causal relationship in which one is you know being engaged so there are two ways and the environmental ethics does not leave the causal way of understanding the environment rather this kind of ethics which I will be talking about is called the life-centric ethics it incorporates it involves the intentional the field significant which I was talking about now somebody pointed out can we have a universal ethical principles my response is yes and this is this is a better response actually this is a better response which gives by which is given by rollstone and light this is if we do not practice that universally then our approach will be only an anthropological survey and environmental ethics is not an anthropological survey it is not about any community not about any particular you know end dangered species rather it is about the end endangered species as a whole rather it is about the humanity as a whole and what kind of you know interaction or engagement the humanity will have with the world so so so it looks at the entire reality you know from a holistic perspective this much thank you