Environmental Ethics: Backgrounds, Views and Future Prospects

Considerations in ethical ties between man and his environment have led to the formation of the field of “environmental ethics”. This dynamic field has equally involved philosophers, theologians, historians, experts and environmental activists in some serious issues, which has, in turn, led to the diversity of attitudes and views in this area. The present study is an attempt to analyze the backgrounds of the emergence of this area and to report the existing views on it as well as to illustrate the future prospects of this field through a historical perspective. Moreover, one of the controversial issues in this field is the role of religion in saving or ruining the environment which will be analyzed in this paper.