One useful way to frame the ethical consideration of an option for practice or policy is to ask: How would this suggested course of action – this project – intersect with the projects and prospects of others? And then: Do some projects matter more than others? Further questions – and perhaps all the usual apparatus of moral theory – might follow from there.

Kirkman will provide the outlines of a work in progress, a paper in which he propose the “projects-and-prospects framework” as a general approach to practical ethics which may be especially useful in the ethics classroom. The framework has its roots in phenomenology and cognitive theory, as well as other sources on ethical theory in practice. Kirkman is developing the paper in parallel with the creation of a new version of my environmental ethics course, for summer 2023, built around the projects-and-prospects framework.

Hosted by the Ethics, Technology, and Human Interaction Center (ETHICx).