Przyczynek do Schopenhauerowskiej, biocentrycznej etyki środowiskowej

Abstract

The article constitutes an attempt to actualize Arthur Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy. The thesis of the article is that Schopenhauer’s philosophy provides an important voice in the context of contemporary moral problems such as environmental protection and responsi-bility for future generations. Moreover, against the grain of the argument made by such philo-sophers as Ernst Tuhendhat, the article concludes that Schopenhauer’s philosophy is a cohe-rent moral philosophy which contains the explanation of both the origin of moral attitudes as well as the justification of moral rules. The second part of article shows that his moral philosophy may be seen as a contribution to environmental ethics both to the pathocentric and biocentric position. It offers basic justification to the extension of the moral community by all sentient or even all living beings. The next part concerns the question whether moral philosophy of Schopenhauer gives any answer to how to resolve the problem of a conflict of interests. A conflict is inevitable in the situation where the moral community consists not only of people but also of other beings that have their own interests too. In order to ex-plain this problem I refer to the philosophy of Hans Jonas because the main goal of his phi-losophy is, indeed, the justification of the extension of moral community. I refer also to Julian Alexandrowicz’s philosophy which insists on the importance of development of ecological consciousness and “ecological conscience”. The article alludes to the problem of universalisa-tion of moral rules that are based on the conscience, emotions, and the sense of responsibility. In reference to the philosophy of Schopenhauer as well as that of Leśniewska and Pawłowska it is accepted that the main goals and values in the ethics are approved not by reason but by the virtue of emotional affirmation. The same concerns environmental ethics. This article proves that the outline of moral community is established thanks to ecological consciousness, but most of all due to emotional attitudes towards nature.