Addressing fragmented human–nonhuman interactions through anubuntu‘mixed’ ethics

Abstract

In this paper, I address human‐induced environmental ills we face using an ubuntu‐inspired ethical lens. I follow ubuntu scholars to stress the significance for moral agents to embody virtues. Virtue development is essential to carry out obligations and address human impacts on the environment. Thaddeus Metz, in particular, has drawn attention to how embodying ubuntu virtues of humility and friendliness can prompt moral agents to be other‐regarding. The view I developed in this paper differs from his ubuntu‐inspired account in at least two significant ways. First, humans cannot be in harmonious relationships with some species such as Black Mambas, Hyenas and sea urchins even if they can interact. Second, we must acknowledge the consequentialist dimension of ubuntu ethics and prioritise the different aspects of ubuntu ‘mixed’ ethics, ranking them to offer possibilities for a more realistic recommendation to change our moral life. This paper demonstrates that the three dimensions of ubuntu ‘mixed’ ethics are fundamental because we need to think about moral consequences, right action and our virtue in accounting for our actions.

Practicing ubuntu

“…Locatedness turns attention to an individual embeddedness within a site with other people and beings . Locatedness is fundamental to the idea of relationality (see Samuel, 2023a, 2023b). Our understanding of a person, her well‐being and moral status are incomplete without it.…”

“…Simply put, ‘proper self‐love’ implies that a person holds herself in appropriately high regard, respectfully, and pursues her well‐being interests (Samuel, 2023b, 91). This does not necessarily imply that she is looking only after her interests, in exclusion of others' interests (Shiao, 2018).…”