Information and Virtue in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Reliable identification and execution of morally sound actions and policies in the Anthropocene demand a comprehensive epistemic foundation that is increasingly inaccessible to both individuals and institutions. Because planetary systems are undergoing rapid, unprecedented, and complex transformations, decision-makers are constrained by severe information deficits, systemic uncertainties, and cognitive limitations, including pervasive motivated reasoning and the disruptive effects of environmental degradation on cognition. Under these conditions, actions intended to address environmental crises frequently fail to achieve moral justification or objective rightness, remaining at best non-culpable. Consequently, poorly informed policies risk accelerating a downward spiral in which compounding ecological failures deplete material and epistemic resources, increase socio-political polarization, and further impair collective decision-making capacity. While shifting moral responsibility to regulatory institutions or adopting subjective frameworks of right action cannot fully resolve these structural epistemic burdens, negative trajectories can be partially mitigated through iterative course-correction and flexible policy adaptation. Furthermore, navigating persistent moral error and unavoidable ecological adversity necessitates cultivating resilience-oriented virtues such as courage, patience, and forgiveness, acknowledging that inward peace of mind and demonstrably right actions will become increasingly rare achievements in an unstable planetary epoch. – AI-generated abstract.