African Environmental Ethics and Its Ontological Foundations-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

African Environmental Ethics and Its Ontological Foundations

Published:2024-07-01 Issue:1 Volume:7 Page:110-123
ISSN:2196-5897
Container-title:Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Dübgen Franziska¹

Affiliation:

1. Münster , Germany

Abstract

Abstract The article carves out a tripartite ontology and related cosmological views, prevalent in many African philosophical accounts, and shows their significance for environmental ethics. It presents distinct cultural practices towards non-human animals and the environment such as totemism, taboos, and the sacralization of natural sites. In a next step, the author identifies specific moral principles that can be derived from this complex ontology and its related cultural practices, such as sufficiency, care, and sharing. This approach in environmental ethics can be situated as constituting a ‘plural holism’. Finally, the article contrasts this plural holism with neoliberal and neo-colonial practices prevalent in the contemporary world and calls for a consideration of these ethical values to guide the necessary transformation of our societies.

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Link

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/yewph-2024-0010/pdf

Reference17 articles.

1. Kevin Gary Behrens, “An African Relational Environmentalism and Moral Considerability,” in: Environmental Ethics, vol. 36, issue 1, 2014, pp. 63–82.

2. Munamato Chemhuru and Dennis Masaka, “Taboos as Sources of Shona People’s Environmental Ethics,” in: Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, vol. 12, no. 7, 2010, pp. 121–133.

3. Jan Dierks, “Holismus,” in: Handbuch Umweltethik, ed. by Konrad Ott, Jan Dierks and Lieske Voget-Kleschin, Stuttgart: Metzler 2016, pp. 177–183.

4. Kwame Gyekye, Tradition and Modernity. Philosophical Reflections on the African Experience, New York: Oxford University Press 1997.

5. Timothy Insoll, “Taboo,” in: The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought, ed. by Francis Abiola Irele and Biodun Jeyifo, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010, pp. 367–369.