The Virtues of Acknowledged Ecological Dependence: Sustainability, Autonomy and Human Flourishing

Abstract

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted following peer review for publication in Environmental Values, 24,[145][146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164] This sort of enquiry is sensitive to specifics, contexts and the unquantifiable. It can help understand not only some prerequisites for human well-being, but also some factors which undermine proposed environmental measures, and thereby affect many other species too. One such factor is an apparent conflict between promoting ecologically responsible behaviour and safeguarding the freedoms required for personal autonomy.How, then, might such enquiry proceed? One strategy is to plunge straight into generating lists of applicable virtues, based on consideration of relevant 'eco-friendly' behaviours. A related approach is to extrapolate contrasting virtues from those 'ecological vices' which have arguably led us into our present predicament. Plenty of valuable work has been done in both these ways, some of which I discuss below. I intend, though, to argue in favour of stepping back and beginning with some more overarching principle. I suggest that AlasdairMacIntyre's concept of 'virtues of acknowledged dependence', elaborated in his book Dependent Rational Animals (1999: 9), might provide such a starting point. The argument begins, however, with a discussion of autonomy.

Mathematical Algorithm for Creating 3D Models of Heat Maps as a Biophysical Method for Assessing Environmental and Economic Fire Damage in the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia

“…The method was successfully applied to the forest of the far Eastern Federal district in the subjects of the Russian Federation: Primorye, Khabarovsk, Kamchatka territory, Magadan region and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Barlow, 2016;Ekaputri, 2016 Dynamical systems theory is a field of mathematics that is used to describe the behavior of complex dynamical systems. In the theory of dynamical systems, differential equations or difference equations are usually used (Hannis, 2015;Giglio, 2016;Nunes, 2016;Singh, 2016;Li, 2017;Bright, 2017). The theory of dynamical systems is called a continuous dynamical system if the system uses a differential equation.…”

“…Continuous dynamical systems, from the physical point of view, are generalized using classical mechanics. The implementation of continuous dynamical systems is usually postulated directly, which is not limited to the Euler-Lagrange equation (Abberton, 2016;Hannis, 2015;Giglio, 2016;Nunes, 2016;Li, 2017). The theory of dynamical systems is called a discrete dynamical system if the system uses a finite-difference equation.…”

“…Currently, the entire population of the far Eastern region is under threat of forest fires, the main representatives of which are Russians, Ukrainians, Yakuts, Koreans and small groups of core nations (Evens, Nanais, Koryaks, etc.). The far Eastern region is characterized by diversified industrial production, which leads to the presence of a large number of sources of environmental pollution with fire-hazardous substances that cause serious environmental and economic problems in the territory ( International scientific results of research in this area show a close relationship between the state of the environment and diseases of various etiologies (Abberton, 2016;Hannis, 2015;Giglio, 2016 The purpose of this study is to assess the ecological and economic situation in the far Eastern region and draw up a schematic heat map and its three-dimensional prototype as a method of observing the dynamics of fire propagation and predicting them in the future.…”

The Catharsis of the Commons

“…Rooted in numerous thinkers through the ages, including Aristotle, Thoreau, Leopold and Carson (Cafaro 2001), it has reemerged in the 1990s with the rise of environmental ethics, positing that ethics is indispensable for the management of common affairs (Marquez 2010). Virtue ethics, founded in Aristotle, enquires the formation of individual values, virtues and the moral reasons of praxis, possessing, thus, the potential to improve the relationships among people and between them and the commons, to breed stewards of the commons and contribute to the essential resolution of CPR dilemmas (Foster 2002;SEP 2002;Jamal 2004;Bina and Vaz 2011;Hannis 2015). In the case of large-scale commons dilemmas, their size and complexity as well as epistemic constraints and the hard trade-offs humans face point to the limits of Virtue Ethics (Marquez 2010).…”

The virtue of Ecophronesis: An ecological adaptation of practical wisdom

“…As Mike Hannis argues, from an ecological virtue perspective, autonomy needs to be rethought as something attained within a network of human relationships, and indeed within an acknowledged ecological dependence on non-human creatures, rather than by the sovereign, atomistic self of Western individualism. 62 Ecophronesis will thereby be conceived as a virtue continually adjusting the delicate interplay of action and receptivity needed in right relationship to human and non-human others.…”