Roundtable: Citizens of the Earth - Reflections on the Ethics and Politics of Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change is an issue of monumental import, and philosophical analysis can assist in thinking through its normative challenges. In philosophy, climate ethics and environmental philosophy usually rely on conceptual sources other than Kantianism -for instance, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and other traditions-but there are plenty of untapped resources in Kant along the lines of obligations and constraints on action, rather than overemphasis on rights, liberty, or utility. The primary intention of this roundtable is to focus specifically on the ethics and politics of climate change in this context. Perspectives from Kantian and Kantian-inspired traditions (such as in Rawls, Adorno, or Habermas) in particular may shed important light on what it means to live an ethical and meaningful life in the Anthropocene.