The Environmental Constituents of Flourishing: Rethinking External Goods and the Ecological Systems that Provide Them

It seems intuitive that human development and environmental protection should go hand in hand. But some have worried there is no framework within environmental ethics that suitably conjoins them. In this paper I suggest we approach this challenge by rethinking a very old idea, external goods. I argue that we can see the basis for the required framework if we recognize the normative significance of our natural environment in the same way Aristotle thought we needed to recognize the normative significance of our social environment. This suggests a promising means of balancing human development and environmental protection.