From environmental ethics to human ecology. A necessary change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/pen.v78.i298.y2022.027Keywords:
environmental ethics, ecology, anthropocentrism, moral responsibility, ecological action, freedom, blameAbstract
Environmental ethics was born as a fair response to the excesses of anthropocentrism. However, an obsessive emphasis on ethics and the environment, with the consequent neglect of the anthropological, may be damaging human life, the freedom of people and life in general. We advocate here for the construction of a human ecology that goes beyond and deeper than the environmental ethics to use. We defend that humanism is perfectly compatible with the recognition of the inherent value of all natural beings. We do this based mainly on some ideas of Hans Jonas, although we reject his catastrophic heuristics. From him we return to the idea that there is a moral responsibility towards other living beings, starting with those closest in time and space, and towards the free flourishing of today’s people. With this, too, the weight of ethics on our ecological action is lowered. This has to attend mainly to experiential, anthropological, scientific and common sense criteria. Finally, we defend that politics, education and environmental communication should be directed directly towards the freedom and virtuous development of today’s people, and not towards controlling them through blame. The transition from environmental ethics to human ecology —we conclude— can be beneficial for both people and nature.
Downloads
References
Attfield, R. (1981). «The Good of Trees», en: Journal of Value Inquiry, 15, 35-54.
Attfield, R. (2018). Environmental Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barnosky, A. D., Hadly, A. E., Bascompte, J., Berlow, E. L., Brown, J. H., Fortelius, M., et al. (2012). «Approaching a State Shift in Earth’s Biosphere», en: Nature, 486, 52-58.
Castilla, J. C. (2016). «Viewpoints of an Ecologist on Practical Environmental Ethic: Socio-Ecology, Common-Pool Resources and Conservation», en: Cuadernos de Bioética, 27, 403-414.
Castilla, J. C. (2019). «Cambio Climático y los Seres Humanos: Ayer, Hoy, Mañana», en: Castilla, J. C., Vicuña, S., Meza, F., Marquet, P. A. y Montero, J.-P. (eds.), Cambio Climático en Chile: Ciencia, Mitigación y Adaptación. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones UC, 461-476.
Cuozzo, G. (2012). Mystice Videre. Esperienza religiosa e pensiero speculativo in Cusano. Milano-Udine: Mimesis.
Domingo Moratalla, A. (2017). Condición humana y ecología integral. Madrid: PPC.
Hill, M. K. (2010). Understanding Environmental Pollution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hill jr., T. (2005). «Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments», en: Sandler, R. y Cafaro, P. (eds.). Environmental Virtue Ethics, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 47-60.
Holland, A. (2001). «Sustainability», en: Jamieson, D. (ed.). A Companion to Environmental Philosophy. Malden: Blackwell, 390-401.
Kirilyuk, A. P. (2006). «Towards Sustainable Future by Transition to the Next Level Civilisation», en: Burdyuzha, V. (ed.). The Future of Life and the Future of Our Civilisation. Dordrecht: Springer, 411-435.
Jonas, H. (1995). El principio de responsabilidad. Ensayo de una ética para la civilización tecnológica. Barcelona: Herder.
Lakoff, G. (2010). «Why it Matters How We Frame the Environment», en: Environmental Communication, 4/1, 70-81.
Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand Country Almanac and Sketches Here and There. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marcos, A. (2001). Ética ambiental. Valladolid: Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid.
Marcos A. (2011). «Aprender haciendo: paideia y phronesis en Aristóteles», en: Educação, 34/1, 13-24.
Marcos, A. (2012). Postmodern Aristotle. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholar Publishing.
Marcos A. (2018). «¿Tienen igual dignidad todos los seres humanos?», en M. Pérez de Laborda, C. Vanney y F. J. Soler (eds.), ¿Quiénes somos? Cuestiones en torno al ser humano. Pamplona: Eunsa, pp. 210-214.
Marcos, A. y Pérez, M. (2018). Meditación de la naturaleza humana. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos.
Næss, A. (2005). «Beautiful Action: Its Function in the Ecological Crisis», en: Glasser, H., Drengson, A. (eds.). The Selected Works of Arne Næss. Dordrecht: Springer, Vol. X, 121-127.
Næss, A. (2005). «The Deep Ecology Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects», en: Glasser, H., Drengson, A. (eds.). The Selected Works of Arne Næss. Dordrecht: Springer, Vol. X, 33-66.
O’Neill, O. (1996). Towards Justice and Virtue: A Constructive Account of Practical Reasoning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Routley, R. (1973). «Is There a Need for a New, an Environmental, Ethic?», en: Proceedings of the XVth World Congress of Philosophy, 1, 205-210.
Salleh, A. K. (1984). «Deeper than Deep Ecology: The Eco-Feminist Connection», en: Environmental Ethics 6/4, 339-345.
Sandler, R. (2012). «Intrinsic Value, Ecology, and Conservation», en: Nature Education Knowledge, 3/10, 4. Scruton, R. (2012). How to Think Seriously About the Planet. The Case for an Environmental Conservatism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sheppard, J. W. y Light, A. (2007). «Rolston on Urban Environments», en: Preston, C.J., Ouderkirk, W. (eds.). Nature, Values, Duty. Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III. Dordrecht: Springer, 221-236.
Spaemann, R. (2003). Límites. Acerca de la dimensión ética del actuar. Madrid: Eiunsa.
Valera, L. y Marcos, A. (2014). «Desarrollo humano sostenible: una visión aristotélica», en: Isegoria. Revista de filosofía moral y política, 51, 671-690.
Valera, L. (2014). «Un nuovo cancro per il pianeta? Natura, ambiente ed essere umano nell’etica ambientale contemporánea», en: Teoria. Rivista di filosofia, 2,175-192.
Valera, L. (2015). Arne Næss. Introduzione all’ecologia. Pisa: ETS.
Valera, L. (2016). «¿Quées la ética ambiental? Desde sus raíces hacia el futuro», en: Cuadernos de Bioética, 27/3, 289-292.
Valera, L. (2019). «Ecología humana. Nuevos desafíos para la ecología y la filosofía», en: Arbor. Ciencia, Pensamiento y Cultura, 195/792, a509.
White, L. (1967). «The historical roots of our ecologic crisis», en: Science 155/3767, 1203-1207.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The publishing Universidad Pontificia Comillas retain the copyright of articles published in Pensamiento. Reuse of content is allowed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivates 3.0 Unported. Authors are encouraged to publish their work on the Internet (for example, on institutional or personal pages, repositories, etc.) respecting the conditions of this license and quoting appropriately the original source.
