Human ecology. New challenges for ecology and philosophy

Abstract

Current developments of ecology have opened up new challenges for contemporary philosophical reflection. In this sense, it is not possible to interpret human nature starting from the idea of the human being as being isolated from its environment. The paradigm of human ecology presented here, therefore, aims to inherit the reflections developed in the philosophy of nature (and also in the philosophy of human nature), proposing the current ecological crisis as an eminently anthropological issue: man’s place in the cosmos also indicates his essence. This task requires us to rethink the specificity of human beings in their relation to the world through the theme of dwelling, which invites us to reflect upon the activities of safeguarding and building the house. It thus becomes possible to consider the current ecological crisis as a predominantly anthropological crisis: to heal the wounds of the ecosystem, we must first heal the fracture within the human being itself.