Earth Stewardship Oikophilia and Philanthropy
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The starting point of this paper is the ecological crisis. Faced with this crisis, human beings have come up with different solutions, which imply a rethinking of the role of technology in our relationship with the environment. Among them, in this paper, three
main solutions are highlighted: the techno-fix, the critique of technocracy (and the return to a pre-technological era), and Earth Stewardship. This latter is, in my opinion, the approach that is most in line with the doctrine of the Catholic Church in recent years and simultaneously implies the love for the “common home” (oikophilia) and the other human
beings (philanthropy). These two aspects are the ontological framework of Earth Stewardship. This approach implies, from an ethical standpoint, the development of a sense of responsibility towards both the other living beings and the human beings
themselves (i.e., human ecology). In this sense, I argue that the focal point of this approach
is the human being and not the environment: our focus must be our dwelling on Earth,
which recalls fruitful relationships with the environment –i.e., the possibility of flourishing
for both the human being and the other living beings
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References
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