Psychedelics and environmental virtues

Classic psychedelic drugs, when administered safely in controlled settings, can induce vivid experiences of unity and connectedness that durably increase feelings of nature-relatedness and pro-environmental behaviors. This makes them a promising form of moral bio-enhancement for cultivating environmental virtues, particularly the master virtue of living in place, which encompasses respect for nature, proper humility, and aesthetic wonder and awe. The proposal offers a practical approach to changing individual behavior to address environmental challenges, which are often framed as collective action problems but also require individual change.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The urgent need for solutions to critical environmental challenges is well attested, but often environmental problems are understood as fundamentally collective action problems. However, to solve these problems, there is also a need to change individual behavior. Hence, there is a pressing need to inculcate in individuals the environmental virtues – virtues of character that relate to our environmental place in the world. We propose a way of meeting this need, by the judicious, safe, and controlled administration of “classic” psychedelic drugs as a form of moral bio-enhancement. Recent evidence shows that psychedelics can be given safely in controlled environments, and can induce vivid experiences of unity and connectedness. These experiences, in turn, can durably increase feelings of nature-relatedness and pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, we argue that responsible psychedelic use can reliably catalyze the development of a key environmental virtue known as living in place. This is a “master environmental virtue” that subsumes the qualities of respect for nature, proper humility, and aesthetic wonder and awe. Our account advances the environmental virtues debate by introducing a relevant practical proposal, and advances the psychedelic moral enhancement debate by providing a much-needed conceptual framework.