Éthique environnementale : un apercu philosophique

Abstract

The term Anthropocene sounds as if it were paying homage to humans, since we humans are chosen as the eponym for an entire epoch. In truth, as we know, this designation is anything but honourable, since we do not see ourselves in a place of honour, but on the contrary in the dock. The enormous significance that man experiences with the epoch designation named after him signals a power unprecedented in the history of the earth, which at the same time expresses the great powerlessness of the ruler. In the meantime, both have led to a great fright as well as to a great awakening, as a result of which environmental ethics has developed into the central ap-plied ethics. Like all applied ethics, environmental ethics is concerned with the relationship to practice, but at the same time it can also be taken as an example for the discussion and criticism of various concepts of justification. In the following, the most important concepts of environ-mental ethics will be outlined and their strengths and weaknesses highlighted, concluding not with an ethical but an anthropological approach.