Objective Summary

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Title

Professor’s Name

Date:

People or Penguins

WILLIAM F. BAXTER

William Baxter in the text gives his proposition on the environmental pollution debate. Generally, Baxter’s position is that in making a case for environmental conservation, benefits should be weighed in terms of satisfaction realized from conservation efforts and reservations made when these efforts hinder human satisfaction. He asserts that pollution control or solution to any human problem must have a precise goal that enjoys sufficient assent among humans. He is critical of environmental conservation efforts today stating that they are not specific in their objective and there are so many unanswered questions regarding pollution control. He proposes that a precise goal for pollution control should be set solely based on human interests, thus, efforts should be directed to achieving an optimal environment for human satisfaction. His thoughts are from an anthropocentric perspective on moral standing and an ecological individualist perspective on moral status. He illustrates his stance with several examples, among them, the case of whether agricultural use of DDT should be stopped given its effects on penguins.

Baxter provides a four-point criterion from which his stance on pollution control emanates; the spheres of freedom, waste as a bad factor to human satisfaction, the view of humans as an end rather than a means of the betterment of others and other things, and preservation of incentive and opportunity for every human to improve their share of satisfaction. The spheres of freedom principle states that every human is at liberty to do whatever they wish as long as their actions do not interfere with other people’s interests (Berlin, 2014). This principle, which Baxter believes in, and his fourth point on incentive and opportunity for humans to improve their satisfaction makes his case that humans should be allowed to use the environment in whatever way they wish to improve their satisfaction as long as actions do not interfere with interests of other humans. As long as DDT is only affecting penguins but bringing some satisfaction to humans, it is okay to continue using it. Waste according to Baxter is any unused resources. He encourages that humans should exploit whatever resources the earth has to satisfy themselves.

Baxter in his proposition however emphasizes the need to strike a balance in the process of optimizing human satisfaction. His position is that environmental responsibility should be assumed based on the amount of satisfaction they bring to humans. In his explanation, he criticizes the status quo in environmental debates where conservationist opinions tend to be given higher weight compared to the opinions of people who do not enjoy so much rapport with nature. He says that the fact that nature cannot speak for itself alone disqualifies any considerations on how it should be treated. According to Baxter, pollution control should be looked at in terms of the resources, – including time and labor, spent on conservation efforts, and an evaluation be made whether these resources would bring more satisfaction if used alternatives. His proposition however lacks a unit of measure for human satisfaction that he wants optimized. He acknowledges this and says that his proposition remains a pious abstraction until when he comes up with a unit to measure human satisfaction.

Reference

Baxter, W. F. (1974). People or penguins: The case for optimal pollution. New York.

Berlin, I. (2014). Freedom and Its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty-Updated Edition. Princeton University Press.