ReNa · Collective Responsibility towards Nature and Future Generations

Collective Responsibility towards Nature and Future Generations

This research project aimed to redefine a collective and proactive understanding of responsibility toward nature and future generations. It addressed a central problem in contemporary environmental ethics, namely the persistent tension between anthropocentric and biocentric approaches. While biocentric and physiocentric perspectives emphasize the intrinsic value of nature and life, anthropocentric positions tend to attribute to nature an instrumental value to in relation to human agency and interests. The project sought to move beyond this opposition by elaborating a concept of responsibility that integrates both dimensions: human moral agency and the value of life as a unifying horizon encompassing nature, present generations, and future generations. The research built upon the concept of nature developed within German Idealism in the early nineteenth century and on the theory of responsibility formulated by Hans Jonas in the twentieth century. On this basis, it was structured in two main stages, each with a distinct but closely connected objective. 1. The Rational Foundation of Collective Responsibility: The first stage of the project focused on establishing the rational foundation of a collective and proactive responsibility toward the world we inhabit, understood as a duty to care for it. This constituted the “objective side” of the research and was grounded in the Kantian conception of human beings as inherently rational, moral, and responsible agents. Developing such a foundation required a renewed philosophical account of the relationship between humanity and nature. In this context, the research addressed two closely related aspects. First, it clarified the ontological continuity between nature and human beings, emphasizing the intrinsic value of life as such. Second, it articulated the primary responsibility that human beings bear toward the natural world and toward future generations, precisely in virtue of their distinctive moral and rational capacities. By revisiting and critically reinterpreting key concepts from German Idealism and Jonas’s philosophy, the project elaborated a framework in which human responsibility does not stand in opposition to the value of life, but is instead grounded in it. 2. The Role of Human Motivation and Context: The second stage of the project addressed the “subjective side” of responsibility, focusing on the motivations and contexts that enable responsible action toward nature and future generations. Its role within the overall research design was to bridge the rational foundation of collective responsibility with its practical realization. Within this framework, the research examined ethical concepts such as respect, in the Kantian sense, and care for the vulnerability of nature and future humans, drawing on Hans Jonas’s ethics of responsibility. Particular attention was devoted to the role of fear as a potential driver of responsibility. The project clarified the conditions under which fear can acquire normative relevance, distinguishing a form of “productive fear” that is appropriate to environmental threats, guided by reason, and capable of motivating action rather than paralysis. By addressing these subjective dimensions, the project contributed to a conception of responsibility that is not only normatively justified, but also practically effective at individual, social, and political levels.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз