John Rawls (1921 - 2002) - Key figure in the tradition of political liberalism
- Political liberalism focuses on the individual liberty/autonomy and political equality
- Created the influential thought experiment the "Veil of ignorance"
- Think about what kind of laws or principles we would pick in creating a society, we don't know anything about ourselves.
Function vs Capabilities -
- Functioning : things that a person values doing or being
- Capabilities : freedom to achieve goals and prohibition
- Both used in terms of sustainability goals and prohibitions
Approaches -
- Capabilities ceilings
- Focus on protecting certain capabilities of current and future peoples, and placing limitations on potentially harmful capabilities of current peoples
- Functioning Constraints -
- Focus on placing limits on what people do, for example by placing a limit on how much carbon emissions a person may produce each year
Why People Harm the Environment
- Cognitive dissonance based on the geographic and temporal distance from cause and effect
- Exchange / trade-off based psychology
- Potential solutions
- Direct feedback and education on the environmental consequences of certain actions
- Education on misleading sustainability concepts such as environmentally friendly.
- Do you think this is accurate? Why do you think people harm the environment
Haruhiko Kawacuchi