Abstract

An environmental ethics grounded on a theory of recognition assumes social justice as incomplete without the due recognition of persons’ relationship with the environment from the standpoint of well-being as an integral part of human flourishing. The state in which this recognition is found missing in intersubjective relations is called reification or the loss of the empathetic engagement of persons with the environment. In Axel Honneth’s social theory, the historical moment in which this reification began can be traced from the emergence of the capitalist economic system. Economic inequalities and environmental crises are simultaneous effects of capitalism symptomatic of the severed empathetic engagement with the environment. The ethical significance of the environment is derived therefore on the first place from its role in the moral integrity of persons. The environment becomes a critical concern for social critique in the advent of this reification. Ethical action towards the environment in a recognitive framework demands reparation of this empathetic engagement in the practical level of human affairs where the environment is always already integrated.