Cheryl Cottine, Michael Hannis, and Sian Sullivan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190456023
- eISBN:
- 9780190456054
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190456023.003.0019
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter brings ||Khao-a Dama perspectives from present-day Namibia into dialogue with ancient Confucianism. These two extremely different approaches find common ground in that both refract the ...
More
This chapter brings ||Khao-a Dama perspectives from present-day Namibia into dialogue with ancient Confucianism. These two extremely different approaches find common ground in that both refract the sharp distinction often posited between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches to environmental ethics. In each case, anthropology and history are both key to building a more nuanced perspective, drawing on the many traditions that have conceptualized humans as part of the world rather than apart from and transcendent over it. The commonalities that emerge foreground an ecological conception of human flourishing—in all its relational interconnection with the rest of nature—as the central concern of environmental ethics.Less
This chapter brings ||Khao-a Dama perspectives from present-day Namibia into dialogue with ancient Confucianism. These two extremely different approaches find common ground in that both refract the sharp distinction often posited between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches to environmental ethics. In each case, anthropology and history are both key to building a more nuanced perspective, drawing on the many traditions that have conceptualized humans as part of the world rather than apart from and transcendent over it. The commonalities that emerge foreground an ecological conception of human flourishing—in all its relational interconnection with the rest of nature—as the central concern of environmental ethics.
Cheryl Cottine
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190456023
- eISBN:
- 9780190456054
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190456023.003.0017
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The chapter creates the framework for a Mengzian environmental ethic by reference to respect and restraint, relying primarily on ancient Confucian texts. These qualities underpin a “tempered ...
More
The chapter creates the framework for a Mengzian environmental ethic by reference to respect and restraint, relying primarily on ancient Confucian texts. These qualities underpin a “tempered anthropocentrism” because a synthesis of role-based virtue and sensitivity to larger ecological forces may, when synthesized, be key to human and earth flourishing. And two competing Confucian and ecology schools might find reconciliation in a shift in focus to some of the earliest Confucian texts—particularly the Mengzi, one of the most important and influential Confucian texts next to Confucius’s Analects—and, in the process, find richer intellectual resources to help address the numerous environmental issues that China faces today.Less
The chapter creates the framework for a Mengzian environmental ethic by reference to respect and restraint, relying primarily on ancient Confucian texts. These qualities underpin a “tempered anthropocentrism” because a synthesis of role-based virtue and sensitivity to larger ecological forces may, when synthesized, be key to human and earth flourishing. And two competing Confucian and ecology schools might find reconciliation in a shift in focus to some of the earliest Confucian texts—particularly the Mengzi, one of the most important and influential Confucian texts next to Confucius’s Analects—and, in the process, find richer intellectual resources to help address the numerous environmental issues that China faces today.
