Environmental Pluralism, Polar Harmonies and Resolution

• Authors: Cocks Sam
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The point of this essay is to draw on the resources of phenomenology to argue that a global environmental ethics is one that should embrace cultural pluralism. My further claim is that due to the presence of a large variety of what Edmund Husserl understands as home-worlds and alien-worlds, any attempt at a universal environmental ethics might be impossible and perhaps unattractive. Nonetheless, I do believe there should be a dialogue that unfolds across these differences for the sake some operative environ-mental ethics. I believe that an aesthetic model that can help us understand the former is the idea of “polar harmonies” put forth by Hebert Speigelberg. I end by claiming that even when a “common nature” is discovered through the interaction with the alien-world, what is found cannot become universalized due to the unavoidable influence of cultural differences upon this very commonality.

Keywords

EN

cultural pluralism; home-world; alien-world; polar-harmony; environ-mental ethics; phenomenology; global dialogue; intuitive fulfillment

• Publisher: Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk; Fundacja Filozofia Na Rzecz Dialogu
• Journal: Dialogue and Universalism
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 9-21

Contributors

author

Cocks Sam

• University of Wisconsin, 1725 State St, La Crosse, WI 54601, USA