Environmental Virtue Ethics in Buddhism

Graduation date: 2015In this thesis, in order to understand why Buddhists in Southeast Asia protect rainforests and to establish a solid foundation for Buddhist environmental ethic, my first two tasks are to draw a clear picture regarding two major environmental concepts--nature and anthropocentrism--in Buddhism and to defend the claims that the Buddhist worldview is best understood as a Cosmological view about nature and Buddhism is a form of weak anthropocentrism. Then, after demonstrating that Buddhist ethics is best understood as a form of virtue ethics, I will argue that Buddhist ethics could also be seen as a form of environmental virtue ethics and conclude that possessing and expressing environmental virtues, including non-greed (Skt., arāga), non-hatred (Skt., adveṣa), non-delusion (Skt., amoha), generosity (Skt., dāna), non-harming (Skt., ahiṃsā) and compassion (Skt., karuṇā), are the main moral reason why Buddhists in Southeast Asian participate in environmental movements for saving rainforests and preserving the natural environment