Projects / Programmes
Animal ethics as a paradigm of sustainable development ethics
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.10.00 |
Humanities |
Philosophy |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H001 |
Humanities |
Philosophy |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.03 |
Humanities |
Philosophy, Ethics and Religion |
Animal ethics, bioethics, sustainable development, enviromental pragmatism, phenomenology, poststructuralism, ecofeminism, somatic sensitivity, compassion, sustainable ethics, education for sustainable development
Researchers (10)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The project will investigate the field of philosophical animal ethics, laying a special emphasis on the role of ethical considerations on animal ethics in the education for sustainable development. The project proposal will link up contemporary animal ethics and contemporary theories of sustainable development, the latter particularly with regard to education for sustainable development and its implementation in educational institutions. Through an analysis of different approaches and key methodological models of philosophical ethics (classic normative ethics, moral rationalism, utilitarianism, capabilities approach, post-structuralism and pragmatism) it will develop an environmental-pragmatistic model of integrating animal ethics in the field of political ethics, bioethics and ethics of sustainable development. Based on the study of the existing theories of ethics concerning attitudes towards animals, the project will lay a new, original environmental-pragmatist thesis about the connection between the human and animal worlds, founded on the definition of feeling life as a basic phenomenon of interconnection between beings within natural and cultural environments. The fundamental thesis of the project thus comprehends a phenomenological-pragmatist-ethical definition of ‘life’ as a basic ‘category’ of a new animal ethics. In the framework of contemporary practical and animal ethics the analyses of animal rights theories, the dignity of animal life and the ethics of attitude towards nature, as well as alternative theories transcending anthropocentric categories, will also point out the importance of linking positive elements of these theories to the field of ethics in education (education for sustainable development, educating and sensitizing individuals regarding their attitude towards nature, bringing of the ecofeminism to the foreground of our analyses, introduction of new findings into education curricula etc.)
Significance for science
Contemporary trends in philosophy reveal the field interrelating ethics of life, animal ethics, and environmental ethics in various theoretical frameworks as especially pressing. Firstly, the project examined the state and basic concepts of traditional animal and applied ethics and connected them in innovative ways with contemporary theories in ethics of life, environmental ethics, and sustainable development ethics. Animal ethics was thus taken as a paradigm of new ethics in its intersubjective, pragmatist, feminist, and environmental elements. New methods for education in animal rights and sustainable and environmental ethics were created. The project simultaneously showed that today the field of animal ethics can serve as a paradigm (and not only a part) of contemporary ethics, since new ethical field emerges through phenomenological and intersubjective elements in the “human – non-human animals” relationship, surpassing traditional as well as other contemporary normative views of ethical judgment of non-human world and the natural world.
Significance for the country
Within the framework of contemporary philosophical tradition in Slovenia the question of the human – nature relationship, and especially the question of relationship between humans and non-human animals, is one of the most neglected issues. This field of philosophical reflection is not yet established, and the question of its terminology remains open as well. Even though animal ethics has immediate social consequences, this field is not represented within the framework of educational policy, since curricula do not contain methodological and historical views of the coexistence of humans, animals, and nature as a whole. At the same time contemporary trends in philosophy reveal the field interrelating ethics of life, animal ethics, and environmental ethics in various theoretical frameworks as especially pressing. The mentioned project with its results helped to position this contemporary field of practical and applied ethics within the framework of contemporary philosophical ethics and its normative theories. For Slovenian space the results that are most important include those that position ethics of relationship between the animal/natural world and human world within the framework of discussions in the field of intersubjectivity, feminist ethics with new social ethics, sustainable development ethics, and also the field of practical questions related to education in sustainable development.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2010,
2011,
2012,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2010,
2011,
2012,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
