Sympathy for Nature in Contemporary Ethical Discourse

DOI

10.2991/cesses-18.2018.169How to use a DOI?

Keywords

sympathy for nature; careful treatment of nature; utilitarianism; ethics of reverence for life; ecological ethics; ecological thinking

Abstract

Sympathy for nature is an essential component of ecological thinking, and a sign of ethical perception of nature. The proposed paper analyzes the ways nature is understood and treated in J. Bentham’s utilitarianism, ethics of A. Schweitzer, and ecological ethics of A. Leopold, especially the motives of sympathetic and careful attitude towards it which may be observed within these approaches. The main question the authors seek to answer is: to what extent sympathy for nature may be free from egocentric attitudes and preoccupation with human problems and demands? They find that there is a tendency within contemporary ecological thinking to free itself from both: purely utilitarian vision of nature, and paternalistic attitude toward it.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Aleksey Chernyak
AU  - Svetlana Rudanovskaya
PY  - 2018/11
DA  - 2018/11
TI  - Sympathy for Nature in Contemporary Ethical Discourse
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Ecological Studies (CESSES 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 766
EP  - 770
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/cesses-18.2018.169
DO  - 10.2991/cesses-18.2018.169
ID  - Chernyak2018/11
ER  -