Abstract

This independent study investigates the advertising phenomenon of greenwashing to launch a philosophical and ethical examination of the societal structure that would allow for such phenomenon and others related to it. Greenwashing describes the practice of organizations or producers disseminating vague, ambiguous, misleading, or otherwise false information through environmental advertising. It speaks to the usage of hollow environmental rhetoric (words such as “green” or “eco-friendly”) utilized to instrumentally garner consumer engagement without addressing the destructive environmental realities which made consumers want pro-environmental products in the first place. Understanding the strange nature of the societal scenario wherein a growing number of consumers look for “green” products (termed “green consumers”), and advertisers respond with a significant degree of misleading environmental rhetoric, this thesis examines the possibilities of greenwashing being a part of a larger and more dangerous social system. This social system is identified as the ideology of contemporary fossil capitalism (CFC). Therefore, this thesis sees the delineation of the contentious theory of ideology, along with relevant real-world applications to demonstrate the reality of the theory. The understanding of ideology is then applied to the present situation regarding environmental consumerism; identifying the various ways in which this state of affairs appears ideological. After demonstrating its ideological character, I address the major ethically objectionable qualities that such a situation would develop. To that, I discuss the instrumentalization of persons, hermeneutical injustices relating to environmental concepts, and the overall degradation of the world environment. I utilize a mostly Kantian ethical lens for this evaluation, with additional aid from Miranda Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice.

Advisor

Riley, Evan

Department

Environmental Studies; Philosophy

Disciplines

Environmental Studies | Ethics and Political Philosophy

Keywords

environmentalism, greenwashing, ideology, kant

Publication Date

2024

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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