A pesquisa em ética na educação ambiental

Abstract

This papper offers an overview of the state of research in environmental ethics and explores the insights and inspiration such work provides into Envionmnetal Education. In short, the paper aims to establish a clear and detailed relationship between Environmental Ethics and Environmental Education. The essay is divided into three parts. In the first part, borrowing from the work of Routley (2003) and Naess (1995), I will trace and discuss the emergence of Environmental Ethics as a discipline (both works appeared initially in 1973). Routley proposes that within a hegemonic Western environmental tradition, that encompasses the last 2500 years, there has been no scope for an ethical engagement with Nature. Nature, he argues, has been seen purely in utilitarian terms. In the same year that Routley's work appeard, Naess also published his manifesto for Deep Ecology, with its 'eighteen principles for action'. Naess' Deep Ecology advocates the principle of a biospheric equality that does not distinguish among its various constitutive elements - rocks, plants, animals, rivers, human beings and the soil -, all being believed to have the same value, at least from an ethical viewpoint. Secondly, the paper will discuss two versions of Earth Ethics, notably those of Rolston (1996) and of Callicott (1993). In his work, Rolston (1996) argues that Nature has been seen exclusively as a natural resource. For Rolston, Environmental Education will play a radical role in the transformation of the way Nature is perceived. Such an approach will demand an engagement with Nature on its own terms, rather than within conventional utilitarian parameters. For this philosopher, the sentence 'everything is a resource' echoes the assertion that 'everyone is an egoist'. For his part, Callicott (1993) too defends a holistic Earth Ethics, an ecocentric approach rooted in the thought of Darwin, David Hume and Adam Smith. According to Leopold (1987), Callicott (1993) presumes that we all have a sense of ethical responsibility towards the community-Earth. This responsibilty is based on such 'ethical emotions' as love, respect, obligation, admiration for and belonging to the Land. For my part, then, I will posit that an ethics of intrinsic value has the potential to subvert the present status quo. Consequently, I will delineate how a strategic blending of the various radical ecology positions can lead to the empowerment of environmental educators.