On Environmental Ethics in China

Since the implementation of the reform-and-open policy in 1978, the last thirty years has witnessed the development among Chinese scholars of a widespread discussion and deep research on such problems as the existence of ethical relations between humankind and nature, anthropocentrism and its value, the intrinsic value and rights of nature. As a result, they have formed a particular theoretical viewpoint, discipline model and questioned the consciousness of Chinese environmental ethics. China has made significant progress in theoretical studies of environmental ethics, and has especially gained remarkable achievements in absorbing, learning from and being compatible with advanced foreign cultures, grasping the history of the development of Western ethics, and keeping up with the pace of western academic study. As a result it could be said that China has played a positive role in promoting the development of its environmental ethics. However, although paying close attention to the theoretical developments of environmental ethics abroad (something which has nearly become the academic trend of China’s environmental ethics), Chinese environmental ethics has been short of its own say, its systematic theory construction and its Chinese cultural characteristics. Hence, it still does not have a say in the world circle of the environmental ethics field.