ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS AS NA ETHICAL PROBLEM: SUBSIDIZING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN LIGHT OF THE ETHICS OF RESPONSABILITY
Nature; Society; Ethics; Modernity; Sustainability
From the perspective of creating an environment for his existence, man has transformed and subjected nature according to his interests and needs. This practice has historically triggered various processes of environmental degradation, which have intensified and become problematized to such an extent that they have brought about the contemporary environmental crisis. There are many efforts to understand the environmental crisis, with a view not only to mitigating environmental problems, but also to broaden the debate about sustainability. Thus, the objective of this paper is to provide reflective subsidies for the understanding of the environmental crisis as an ethical problem and theoretical subsidies for the repair of this problem in the light of the ethics of responsibility. The methodology used to arrive at the results was divided into two stages. The first stage problematized the modern conception of nature as symptomatic of environmental degradation and demonstrated how the processes of degradation and the institutionalization of environmental problems and risks denounce the ethical character of the environmental crisis. In the second stage, Hans Jonas's ethics of responsibility was presented as a proposal for the repair of this problem. From the bibliographical research and the discussions, the work contributed to the identification of the origins of environmental degradation with regard to the influence of the modern conception of nature for the establishment of the environmental crisis. The importance of recognizing the ethical dimension for understanding the environmental crisis. The Ethics of Responsibility represents an alternative in the (re) foundation of moral values that guide society towards the adoption of more sustainable behaviors. It is important to continue the reflective exercise of broadening the comprehensive matrix on sustainability, beyond the economic, social and ecological dimensions, so that the environmental debate continues to mature and society to change practices that promote environmental conservation.