Two Philosophies of the Environmental Crisis

Abstract

One of the most important – and most disturbing – characteristics of philosophical reflection on environmental questions is that there are, in reality, two separate issues involved. One refers to a philosophy of nature and the other to a philosophy of technology. This has led to two forms of well-established and clearly argued reflection, each with its own debates. These two currents have developed independently of each other, and continue to do so, as if the other did not exist. But this duality is no longer tenable. Due to the generalization of the environmental crisis and the emergence of new technologies, it has become impossible to treat nature and technology separately. This paper is thus an attempt at a synthesis of these two fields of environmental ethics.