Graduation Year
2026
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Second Department
Philosophy
Reader 1
Martin Glazier
Reader 2
Jordan Daniels
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
This thesis examines how environmental responsibility comes to be framed at the level of the individual consumer despite the structural nature of environmental harm. It examines how environmental responsibility becomes individualized within dominant environmental discourse, focusing on the role of greenwashing and the broader corporate and cultural context that shift attention from structural drivers of environmental harm towards consumer behavior. It argues that ethical consumption functions as an attempt to achieve moral separation from harm, but that such purity is structurally and conceptually impossible given the embedded and embodied nature of human life. Finally, it shifts from critique to engagement. I propose “entry-point engagement” as a way of understanding how action becomes possible within conditions of unavoidable implication.
Recommended Citation
Greer, Isa, "Moral Implication and the Limits of Ethical Consumption" (2026). Scripps Senior Theses. 2743.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2743
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
