Environmental ethics and theory of responsibility in paul ricoeur and hans jonas: an approach on sustainability in postmodernity

The rising environmental breakdown is leading the way into a substantial change in precepts and questionings concerning human responsibility towards the environment, which in turn incites a resignification of the existing bondings between agent and nature, and thereby promotes the systematization of an ethics that contributes to reverse the problems caused by human actions. Considering this reality, the present article aims to address some deliberations regarding the ethical dimension as an effective elucidation for the handling of environmental issues, which are part of an emerging trend in post modernity. What we propose is that the making of a sustainable world based on socio environmental values calls for a thorough reflection about the individual’s perception of the world, and concerning the new behaviors that should have priority and be developed in the individual-nature relationship, considering environmental responsibility as one of the conducting parameters. In order to achieve such purpose, we carried out bibliographical research with Paul Ricoeur’s and Hans Jonas’ works as main theoretical foundations, and specifically, on the existing intersection between ethics as the ideal of living well, and of the promotion of environmental responsibility.