Supervisors info:
Αντωναράκου Ασημίνα Καθηγήτρια Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, ΕΚΠΑ,
Λέκκας Ευθύμιος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, ΕΚΠΑ,
Μπακοπούλου Αθανασία Ε.Δ.Ι.Π. Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Until recently, the Bioethics Approach was concerned with the treatment of life forms, mainly animals and plants and ecosystems, without uniformly addressing the issues, as others argue for the need to protect the environment as a mean to survive and ensure a better way of living, while others suggest man's duty to protect the environment as an end in itself.
And while we owe respect and care to the natural world, we do not actually believe that those who live in the natural world are carriers of rights and therefore their autonomy must be protected. This approach is largely due to the prevailing anthropocentric character that provides a basis to the utilitarian value of nature. We protect and respect nature as part of a tool-based approach, because it is valuable to us as a means to achieve our own goals. With the establishment of the ecological thinking, we recognize in all parts of nature an intrinsic value, just because they exist, and we commit ourselves to them for their own benefit, within the biocentric ethics. The modern Bioethical approach suggests that the natural world has intrinsic value, so land-use options are ethical choices and are related to the ethical challenges of protecting and improving biodiversity, as opposed to human contempt for the intrinsic value of biodiversity. The philosophical current of ecocentrism and Earth Ethics no longer perceives the non-human world as a tool value, as a storehouse of natural resources and waste waters. In contrast, it cares for the fulfillment of the natural world's autonomous goals of survival, reproduction and quality of life according to its capabilities. The concept of animal rights, plants, geographical areas, ensures protection and respect for the non-human world, as the intrinsic value of the being (human and non-human) is no longer determined by the Kantian approach of being rational.
In the context of the ecocentric approach to environmental Bioethics, the similarities between human and non-human parts of nature are now highlighted, with an approach respecting autonomy based on principles. Decisions that reduce deforestation, care for endangered species, etc., lead us towards the ethical goal of protecting and preserving biological diversity.
Keywords:
Moral Philosophy, Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, Biodiversity, Principled Autonomy
