Kant and Environmental Justice

Abstract

Many commentators in environmental ethics find little value in Kantian philosophy for environmental problems, and Kant is largely ignored in debates on environmental justice. This is surprising: Kant’s approach is a traditionally prominent option in normative ethics, and in recent years his own legal and political philosophy has gained increasing relevance to contemporary legal and political thinking. Papers in this panel discuss various connections between Kant and environmental issues, with the dual aim of furthering Kant’s relevance to environmental issues and of showing the importance of addressing the latter for Kantian scholarship. What lessons can we draw from Kant with regard to environmental issues? Do we need to rethink or amend aspects of Kant’s philosophy in order to address these issues adequately? 
The panel focuses primarily on Kant’s legal and political philosophy, as this area is typically overlooked by those environmental commentators who deem Kant not worth of consideration when it comes to environmental issues. However, the panel also includes themes from Kant’s ethics, as looking at environmental issues from its perspective can be much more useful than commonly acknowledged. Moreover, Kant’s contribution to and relation with contemporary debates in environmental justice can hardly be confined to his legal and political philosophy. Indeed, his legacy has been appropriated to variable extents by virtually all sides in contemporary debates about justice broadly construed, and, while this appropriation has often been based on his own legal and political thinking, often it resulted from an independent elaboration of his ethics. For this reason, a panel on Kant and environmental justice can benefit from being open to both his legal-political philosophy and his ethics. 
The topics discussed by the panel in connection with Kantian conceptions of justice include: climate justice; duties to future generations; duties to protect the environment; environmental racism and environmental unfairness.

Title	Details
Envisioning a Just Future with Green-Tinted Königsbergian Lenses	View Paper Details
Kant and Climate Justice: Energy as a Public Right	View Paper Details
Environmental Protectionist Duties as Implied by Kant’s Juridical Postulate of Right	View Paper Details