Year of Award
2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Arts (MA)
Degree Name
Philosophy
Other Degree Name/Area of Focus
Environmental Philosophy
Department or School/College
Philosophy
Committee Chair
Christopher Preston
Commitee Members
David Sherman, Ashby Kinch
Keywords
climate change, complicity, climate ethics, individual accountability for climate change harms, Christopher Kutz, Iris Marion Young
Subject Categories
Applied Ethics | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Other Philosophy
Abstract
As individuals, how should we understand our personal complicity in climate change related harms? In this thesis, I argue that the predominant way we think of complicity within the Western moral paradigm—that is, as a distribution problem—is inadequate in helping us understand the nature of our complicity in climate change related harms. This inadequacy, in turn, psychologically hampers individual citizens residing in high-emitting nations of the Global North from effective and sustainable social and political engagement with climate change. To address the inadequacy and obstructions that result from it, I follow the discussion between Christopher Kutz and Iris Marion Young as they respectively build alternative conceptions of collective accountability (for Kutz) and collective responsibility (for Young) within the Western philosophical tradition. After situating their approaches in light of climate change, I gesture, as a conclusion, towards several ways we may begin to shift our understanding of complicity practically in our personal, social, and political lives.
Recommended Citation
Kristanugraha, Shalomita, "Complicity and Climate Change" (2020). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11635.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11635
Included in
Applied Ethics Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Other Philosophy Commons
© Copyright 2020 Shalomita Kristanugraha