1st Edition
The Concept of Milieu in Environmental Ethics Individual Responsibility within an Interconnected World
The Concept of Milieu in Environmental Ethics discusses how we can come together to address current environmental problems at the planetary level, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, transborder pollution and desertification.
The book recognises the embedded individual sociocultural and environmental contexts that impact our everyday choices. It asks, in this pluralism of worldviews, how can we build common ground to tackle environmental issues? What is our individual moral responsibility within the larger collaborative challenge? Through philosophical reasoning, this book pragmatically addresses these questions and builds a framework to support sustainable ways of living. At the core of the book, it draws on the concept of milieu (fūdo) inspired by the Japanese philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō, which captures how we act within and perceive our surroundings as a web of culturally, historically and geographically situated meanings and values. It argues that the milieu connects us as individuals with community, past and future history, and the natural world, providing us with common ground for global environmental ethics.
This book will be an engaging and interesting read for scholars, researchers and students in environmental ethics, philosophy and sustainability.
1. Introduction 1.1. Environmental urgency 1.2. Current dominant key ideas 1.3. Pragmatism and need for consensus 1.4. Plan 2. Milieu 2.1. Three-levels model 2.2. Background of the concept of milieu 2.3. Updating the idea of milieu 2.4. Medial matrix shaping individuals 2.5. Ethical action as medial imprint 2.6. Summary 3. Sustainability 3.1. Precaution, diversity and environmental autonomy 3.2. Normative implications 3.3. Limits and priorities 3.4. Summary 4. Responsibility 4.1. Imprints and contributory individual responsibility 4.2. Matrix and capacity-responsibility 4.3. Responsibility to do reparative actions 4.4. Pragmatic safeguards 4.5. Summary 5. Conclusion
Biography
Laÿna Droz recently completed her PhD in Global Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, Japan.
