Contemporary Environmental Ethics Research Articles

La relación hombre-naturaleza como fundamento de la responsabilidad ambiental

Environmental responsibility has been analyzed since the mid-20th century, establishing its foundation in the disruption of the relationship between humans and nature. The urgency of these evaluations is a consequence of the negative impacts that human development has had on nature, endangering human existence itself. Delving into the study of the processes affecting this relationship, with the philosophical dimensions it implies, is a task that demands engagement with the body of knowledge of this science. Philosophy, as a conception of the world, includes ontological, ethical, and gnoseological dimensions. Therefore, addressing environmental issues should be done from this same philosophical perspective, more specifically from dialectical materialism, which allows for an understanding of the dynamics of natural and social development. Many scientists and intellectuals converge on the foundation and conceptualization of environmental responsibility. At this point, it is necessary to clarify the elements that allow for the establishment of the human-nature relationship as the basis of environmental responsibility. This research aims, from a historical-philosophical perspective, to analyze the human-nature relationship as the foundation of environmental responsibility based on ontological, ethical, and gnoseological dimensions. Given the qualitative nature of the research, it is based on the dialectical materialist conception of the world, supported by analytical-synthetic, hermeneutic, and historical-logical methods, which allowed for the determination of contributory elements for the theoretical foundation of environmental responsibility. In this sense, it was concluded that the relationship between the ontological, ethical, and gnoseological dimensions established in the study of the human-nature relationship allows it to be established as the basis of environmental responsibility. It also contributes to the integral analysis of phenomena occurring in nature, additionally providing essential elements for the development of contemporary environmental ethics.

Environmental ethics and ancient philosophy: A complicated affair

This article provides a comprehensive review of the rather intricate relationship between contemporary environmental ethics, understood as a philosophical branch, and ancient philosophy . While its primary focus is on Western philosophy, it also includes some brief yet crucial considerations about the influence of Eastern traditions of thought on environmental ethics. Aside from the introduction in the first section, the discussion is organised into three main sections. In the Reception: Ancient philosophy in environmental ethics section, I review the initial reception of ancient philosophy in contemporary environmental ethics. Next, in the Reaction: Environmental ethics in ancient philosophy scholarship section, I examine how the scholarship in AP responded to this early reception. I conclude, in the final section, with some constructive suggestions for future research.

Sacrifice in Environmental Ethics and Theology

Sacrifice is a controversial topic in contemporary environmental ethics. The vocabulary of sacrifice is rife with difficulties, and theological voices such as Rachel Muers and Willis Jenkins evince a justified wariness about sacrifice as an ethical norm in light of feminist and liberationist critiques of how appeals to sacrifice have functioned as tools of oppression. There are two challenges that this account of sacrifice seeks to address: the first is discursive and the second is practical. Both the discursive and the practical challenges have important ethical implications. In relation to the first challenge, I argue that the way in which sacrifice language is deployed is morally significant—for it may justify abuses and it may obscure injustices. I argue against certain uses of the term “sacrifice,” and at the same time, I claim that Christian environmental theologians and ethicists cannot bypass the normative significance of sacrifice embedded in their sacred texts and theological tradition—though they must grapple with its dangers. Most importantly, sacrifice should not be valorized in ways that spiritualize passivity in the face of injustice. I argue that invoking sacrifice as a kind of plea for modesty by the privileged is inadequate insofar as it fails to acknowledge the grievous and devastating sacrifices being made by those who have contributed least to climate change, such as indigenous land defenders in Central and South America. In relation to the second (practical) challenge, I offer a sketch of a theology of sacrifice and the ways in which such a theology may be enacted liturgically and ethically in response to ecological concerns.

What is the Meaning of Immanuel Kant’s Notion of the Human Being as the Ultimate End of Nature?

The article explores Kant’s notion of the human being as the ultimate end of nature, presenting an ethical interpretation of this notion. The author of this article believes that the analysis of Kant’s assumptions will allow a deeper understanding of our own hermeneutical situation, in which ecological problems force us to rethink our relationship with nature and the meaning of human existence. Analyzing Kant’s early texts on Lisbon earthquake and his reflection on the sublime in the Critique of Judgement, the author asks how the experience of an uncontrolled natural element complements Kant’s ethical vision of nature’s teleology. Emphasizing the importance of insight into human vulnerability for the implementation of moral purpose in nature, the article outlines guidelines for interpretation that allow the relevance of Kant’s position in the context of contemporary environmental ethics.

How Can We Know Wai-Horotiu—A Buried River? Cross-cultural Ethics and Civic Art

The complex interactions and ruptures between contemporary settler colonialism, environmental ethics, and Indigenous rights and worldviews often emerge in projects of civil engineering. The continued capture, control and burial of natural water courses in Aotearoa-New Zealand is a case in point, and exemplifies a failure to stay abreast of evolving understandings and renewed relationships we seek with our waterways, our ancestors. Wai-Horotiu stream used to run down what is now Queen Street, the main road in Auckland, Aotearoa-New Zealand’s largest city. Treasured by Māori as a source of wai (water) and mahinga kai (food), it is also the home of Horotiu, a taniwha or ancestral guardian—a literal ‘freshwater body’. However, as Tāmaki-Makaurau transitioned into Auckland city, Wai-Horotiu became denigrated; used as an open sewer by early settlers before being buried alive in the colonial process. How, now, can we know this buried waterway? Te Awa Tupua Act 2017 that affords the Whanganui River juristic personality and moral considerability offers one possible solution. It acknowledges that waterways, incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements, exist in existential interlinks with Māori as part of their whakapapa (genealogical networks). This paper asks, can a corresponding and appropriate ethics of association and care be fostered in and expressed by the political descendants of British settlers (Pākehā) and later immigrants who live here under the auspices established by Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840? Here is a conversation between a Māori earth systems scientist and a Pākehā interdisciplinary scholar. Where Hikuroa speaks from and to direct whakapapa connections, beginning with pepeha, Lythberg’s narrative springboards from public art projects that facilitate more ways of knowing Wai-Horotiu. Together, we contend that a regard for Indigenous relationships with water can guide best practice for us all, and propose that creative practices can play a role in attaching people to place, and to waterways.

East Asian Cultural Perspective of Contemporary Environmental Ethics

East Asian Cultural Perspective of Contemporary Environmental Ethics

Between Jew and Nature: Tracing Jewish Ethics in the Ecological Imagination of Bernard Malamud’sDubin’s Lives

ABSTRACTThe idea that Jews are “ecophobes” is a favorite shtick of American comedy. But does it reflect the truth? This article offers an alternative reading of the Jewish cultural production in twentieth-century American literature that goes beyond the stereotypical image of the “unnatural Jew.” Principally focused on Bernard Malamud’s novel Dubin’s Lives, this article frames Malamud’s work within the context of post-war environmental thought, American Jewish literature, and Jewish environment ethics. I hope to provide an alternative vision of modern American Jewish imagination and its relation to the nonhuman environment. I argue that this relation takes shape in Jewish culture due in part to its historical context: a context marked by Diaspora and assimilation. I enlist Emmanuel Lévinas’s ethics of asymmetry and Hans Jonas’s ontological ethics to show how Judaism and Jewish philosophy can be an ally in the creation or expansion of contemporary environmental ethics. Textual or performative Jews, to whom American literature and humor have accustomed us, are finally “two with Nature” (as Woody Allen says) not because they are Jewish but, perhaps, because they are not “Jewish” enough.

Between Jew and Nature: Tracing Jewish Ethics in the Ecological Imagination of Bernard Malamud’s <em>Dubin’s Lives</em>

ABSTRACT The idea that Jews are “ecophobes” is a favorite shtick of American comedy. But does it reflect the truth? This article offers an alternative reading of the Jewish cultural production in twentieth-century American literature that goes beyond the stereotypical image of the “unnatural Jew.” Principally focused on Bernard Malamud’s novel Dubin’s Lives, this article frames Malamud’s work within the context of post-war environmental thought, American Jewish literature, and Jewish environment ethics. I hope to provide an alternative vision of modern American Jewish imagination and its relation to the nonhuman environment. I argue that this relation takes shape in Jewish culture due in part to its historical context: a context marked by Diaspora and assimilation. I enlist Emmanuel Lévinas’s ethics of asymmetry and Hans Jonas’s ontological ethics to show how Judaism and Jewish philosophy can be an ally in the creation or expansion of contemporary environmental ethics. Textual or performative Jews, to whom American literature and humor have accustomed us, are finally “two with Nature” (as Woody Allen says) not because they are Jewish but, perhaps, because they are not “Jewish” enough.

Classical Chinese Gardens: Landscapes for Self-Cultivation

This paper examines the design philosophy of classical Suzhou gardens in China, with regards to their natural and architectural elements on the moral education of the inhabitants. Through studying the metaphorical connotations of garden elements, the author reflects on their propositions for contemporary environmental ethics, aesthetic appreciation, and moral education. As such, the article is structured around three themes: classical Chinese gardens cultivating environmental ethics, classical Chinese gardens cultivating an appreciation of aesthetics, and classical Chinese gardens cultivating moral characters. The essay finally suggests that classical Chinese gardens are landscapes for self-cultivation.

The problem of respect in environmental philosophy

The term respect is frequently used in ordinary communication however it also has a significant role in philosophical discussions focused on environmental ethics. This essay deals with the ambiguity of the term respect. The author analyzes respect from a philosophical point of view claiming that several possible interpretations of what the word respect means and what standards of behavior to which it is to be related. It is pointed out that the issue of whether respect should be understood as an attitude or behavior. The author highlights the problem of constraints imposed by respect and the relation of respect to intrinsic and instrumental value. The approach is analyzed also from the point of view of Kant’s ethics, nevertheless the author examines it also from the standpoints of various contemporary environmental ethicists (e.g. Taylor, Goodpaster, Katz, Lo). However, author concludes that understanding respect as a virtue appears to be a most promising approach in contemporary environmental ethics because it can solve the problem of finding balanced interpretation of respect.

Is Broad the New Deep in Environmental Ethics? A Comparison of Broad Ecological Justice and Deep Ecology

I argue in this article that a theory of broad ecological justice or the extended capabilities approach, an interesting approach in contemporary environmental ethics, shares many of its core ideas with deep ecology and Arne Naess’s ecosophy T. The similarities between these approaches include the ambition to address the roots of environmental problems, emphasis on recognition and the criticism of oppressive structures, and a systemic orientation. Acknowledging these similarities illustrates the contemporary value of the deep ecology movement. It also helps to develop the theory of broad ecological justice further, especially in terms of bridging the gap between movements and theoretical discussion.

The Monster of Representation: Climate Change and Magical Realism in Beasts of the Southern Wild

This article argues that formal and thematic elements of magical realism can bridge reality and fantasy in particularly productive ways when dealing with the imaginative challenges of representing climate change and environmental injustice. My analysis of Benh Zeiltin’s film, Beasts of the Southern Wild , situates magical realism in the emerging environmental discourse about climate change and focuses on the techniques used to make slow violence visible, including the monstrous symbols in the form of beasts that embody climate change and reflect the social anxieties associated with an uncertain planetary future. Magical realism engages with the temporal and spatial scales necessary for depicting the state of risk and crisis associated with anthropogenic climate change, and it produces narratives that include marginalized voices, which are indicators of contemporary environmental ethics in the U.S. that mobilize discourses of race, gender, and class. Finally, the article explores how the film represents the material consequences and cultural anxieties surrounding climate displacement and concludes that stories about climate change refuse narrative closure. The realities of climate change necessitate a shift in the ways we understand humans’ relationship to the material world and the narratives we use to represent it.

Considerations For A Confucian Ecological Humanism

The thesis here is based on the methodological assumption that the Analects of Confucius should be interpreted within the greater context of the Four Books, Five Classics, Xunzi, and the works of Neo-Confucian literati. It is argued that the Analects can be consistently modeled as an environmental ethics of weak anthropocentrism so long as it is read according to two provisos: first, provided that “weak anthropocentrism” is used in its standard sense in the context of contemporary environmental ethics; second, provided that the hermeneutic method of situating the Analects within the system of the Four Books, Five Classics, Xunzi, and Song-Ming Confucian texts is suspended. As soon as the hermeneutic suspension required by the second proviso is lifted, the heuristic conclusion in favor of the anthropocentric reading of the Analects is dialectically superseded by a non-anthropocentric model of ecological humanism.

Unfurling western notions of nature and Amerindian alternatives

ESEP Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics Contact the journal RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections ESEP 15:105-123 (2015) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00159 Unfurling western notions of nature and Amerindian alternatives Egleé L. Zent* Laboratory of Human Ecology, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) Altos de Pipe, Ado 20632, Venezuela *Corresponding author: egleelzent@gmail.com ABSTRACT: This essay presents an overview of the concept of ‘nature’. It provides some reflections on the heterogeneity of notions and values subsumed in the term nature in a portion of the Western tradition (from Ancient Greece-Rome through the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment to the present day). The paper explores, in a diachronic, non-comprehensive fashion, the various connotations and conceptions given to the term nature, highlighting the socio-ecological risks that occur when ecological notions are extrapolated worldwide as if they were standard ones. It also reveals that such philosophical plurality is a historical as well as a contemporary phenomenon. The heterogeneity of notions in Western and Amerindian traditions should, ideally, be linked to pragmatic strategies geared toward the construction of improved contemporary environmental ethics. KEY WORDS: Environmental ethics · Nature-society · Biocultural conservation · Biocultural diversity · Philosophy of science Full text in pdf format Cite this article as: Zent EL (2015) Unfurling western notions of nature and Amerindian alternatives. Ethics Sci Environ Polit 15:105-123. https://doi.org/10.3354/esep00159 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESEP Vol. 15, No. 2. Online publication date: October 02, 2015 Print ISSN: 1863-5415; Online ISSN: 1611-8014 Copyright © 2015 Inter-Research.

AFFECTED BY NATURE: A HERMENEUTICAL TRANSFORMATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

AbstractThe value‐action gap poses a considerable challenge to normative environmental ethics. Because of the wide array of empirical research results that have become available in the fields of environmental psychology, education, and anthropology, ethicists are at present able to take into account insights on what effectively motivates proenvironmental behavior. The emotional aspect apparently forms a key element within a transformational process that leads to an internalization of nature within one's identity structure. We compare these findings with studies on environmental activists, which appear to a significantly lesser degree hampered by the value‐action gap, thereby attempting to understand what provides them with the drive to act more consistently on their moral attitudes. Hermeneutics is found to play a crucial role in the processes that lead to lasting and consistent motivation toward proenvironmental behavior. An empirically informed hermeneutical approach could therefore provide a promising impetus for contemporary environmental ethics.

Hilary Marlow, Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 338 + xvi. £65.00 (hbk).

Hilary Marlow, Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 338 + xvi. £65.00 (hbk).

From Traditionalism to Modernism: A Study of the Problem of Environment in Africa

The history of the environmental philosophy carries with it the effort to overcome the medieval anthropocentric morality. Here, nature is seen from the instrumental value which they give. The instrumental value here shows the existence of things as important only as they are useful to man. The contemporary environmental ethics bring a novelty showing these environmental bodies as possessing an intrinsic value showing that they have an ethical value. The medieval ethical system which denies intrinsic value to the environment and thus posits man as being at the center of any moral system leads to the over possession of the environment by man. This over possession by man has led to the destruction of environment by man who exploits the environment in his service. This work looks at the African scenario which seems to be facing more environmental degradation in the contemporary times. The reason for this is surmised by this paper as a damaging evolution of the African history from traditionalism which seems to respect the environment to modernism which demystifies the mysteries accorded the environment and hence putting the environment into excessive use through some actions like deforestation, burning of fossil fuels and so on. This paper suggests a crusade against these damaging effects of modernism for a better preservation of the environment.

Book Review: Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics

Book Review: Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics

Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics – By Hilary Marlow

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 37, Issue 3 p. 204-205 Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics – By Hilary Marlow Phillip Michael Sherman, Phillip Michael Sherman Maryville CollegeSearch for more papers by this author Phillip Michael Sherman, Phillip Michael Sherman Maryville CollegeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 14 September 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2011.01534_9.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume37, Issue3September 2011Pages 204-205 RelatedInformation

Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics: Re-Reading Amos, Hosea and First Isaiah. By HILARY MARLOW.

Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics: Re-Reading Amos, Hosea and First Isaiah. By HILARY MARLOW.