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African Environmental Ethics and Its Ontological Foundations

  • Franziska Dübgen
Published/Copyright: August 6, 2024
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Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy
From the journal Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy Volume 7 Issue 1

Abstract

The article carves out a tripartite ontology and related cosmological views, prevalent in many African philosophical accounts, and shows their significance for environmental ethics. It presents distinct cultural practices towards non-human animals and the environment such as totemism, taboos, and the sacralization of natural sites. In a next step, the author identifies specific moral principles that can be derived from this complex ontology and its related cultural practices, such as sufficiency, care, and sharing. This approach in environmental ethics can be situated as constituting a ‘plural holism’. Finally, the article contrasts this plural holism with neoliberal and neo-colonial practices prevalent in the contemporary world and calls for a consideration of these ethical values to guide the necessary transformation of our societies.

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Published Online: 2024-08-06
Published in Print: 2024-07-15

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. Editorial Preface
  4. Preface
  5. Preface
  6. I. Time and Nature
  7. Embedded Agency in Early Chinese Philosophy: Time, Place, and Orientation
  8. Humanized Nature and Reversed Time
  9. Nature Is Republican – Nature and Freedom in Kant and Schelling
  10. Indigenous Accounts of Spiraling Time
  11. II. Nature and Responsibility
  12. What Do We Owe Future Generations
  13. From Guilt to Shame: Ecocide Responses East and West
  14. African Environmental Ethics and Its Ontological Foundations
  15. Ethics of Motherhood in Chinese Traditions
  16. III. Nature and Culture
  17. Japanese Gardens: Time of Letting – Time of Growth
  18. The Great Wall and Time
  19. Season and History
  20. A Japanese Perspective of the Mind-Body-Land Connection
  21. Stepping-out-of-Oneself: An Intercultural Dialogue on the Power of Things
  22. Auge und Atem. Ist ein weicher Weg der Modernisierung möglich?
  23. IV. Time and Interreligious Dialogue
  24. The Tea Ceremony and Christian Mass: Encounter between the Tea Masters and Jesuit Missionaries
  25. Spirituality and Society: A Way to Search for the Common Good
  26. “Resacralizing” the Cosmos in a Post-secular Age
  27. Bio-Bibliography
  28. Name Index
https://doi.org/10.1515/yewph-2024-0010

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. Editorial Preface
  4. Preface
  5. Preface
  6. I. Time and Nature
  7. Embedded Agency in Early Chinese Philosophy: Time, Place, and Orientation
  8. Humanized Nature and Reversed Time
  9. Nature Is Republican – Nature and Freedom in Kant and Schelling
  10. Indigenous Accounts of Spiraling Time
  11. II. Nature and Responsibility
  12. What Do We Owe Future Generations
  13. From Guilt to Shame: Ecocide Responses East and West
  14. African Environmental Ethics and Its Ontological Foundations
  15. Ethics of Motherhood in Chinese Traditions
  16. III. Nature and Culture
  17. Japanese Gardens: Time of Letting – Time of Growth
  18. The Great Wall and Time
  19. Season and History
  20. A Japanese Perspective of the Mind-Body-Land Connection
  21. Stepping-out-of-Oneself: An Intercultural Dialogue on the Power of Things
  22. Auge und Atem. Ist ein weicher Weg der Modernisierung möglich?
  23. IV. Time and Interreligious Dialogue
  24. The Tea Ceremony and Christian Mass: Encounter between the Tea Masters and Jesuit Missionaries
  25. Spirituality and Society: A Way to Search for the Common Good
  26. “Resacralizing” the Cosmos in a Post-secular Age
  27. Bio-Bibliography
  28. Name Index
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