Final answer:
Moral exclusion is the act of omitting certain people and animals from one's moral consideration, leading to justifications for different or no moral standards being applied to them. This concept is crucial in the context of discrimination and environmental ethics. The correct option is (a).
Step-by-step explanation:
Omitting certain people and animals from one's circle of moral concern is known as moral exclusion. This concept refers specifically to the process where individuals or groups are deemed outside the boundary within which moral values, rules, and considerations of fairness apply. Those inside this boundary are accorded a full range of moral concerns, while those outside it are treated as if different standards or no standards apply, justifying their exclusion from moral consideration.
Moral exclusion is a phenomenon that one can observe in many social contexts, such as in issues of racism, sexism, speciesism, and other forms of discrimination. For example, in environmental ethics, the debate over whether non-human entities like animals, plants, or ecosystems deserve moral consideration is intrinsically related to this concept. Philosophers like William Baxter, who advocate an anthropocentric view, tend to exclude non-human entities from moral consideration unless their harm or degradation affects human interests.
Conversely, expanding one's moral consideration to include both human and non-human actors is a key to overcoming the tragedy of the commons, where collective resources are depleted due to individual self-interest. Encouraging altruism or preventing free riding are strategies suggested to resolve such a collective dilemma. Ethical frameworks that include a global environmental ethic help facilitate this inclusion.