Conférences en ligne GRÉEA : #1 – Rafael Ziegler, « Can justice respect needs and nature? The idea of a nature-respecting sufficiency »

Information générale

De mai à juillet, le GRÉEA invite ses membres distant.es geographiquement, ou n’ayant pas encore eu l’occasion de présenter au GRÉEA, à discuter de leurs recherches sous forme de visioconférence/discussion en ligne. Pour participer à l’une de ces rencontres, merci de bien vouloir contacter Sophia Rousseau-Mermans, coordinatrice du groupe. 

#1 – Rafael Ziegler, University of Greifswald, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, « Can justice respect needs and nature? The idea of a nature-respecting sufficiency » | 19 Mai, 2020 @12:30

La version préliminaire de l’article peut être transmise sur demande.

Résumé

Sustainability discussions are motivated by two important sufficiency considerations: a focus on basic needs and on those most in need reaching a social minimum; and a focus on limits to production and consumption with a view to global unsustainability. This ‘double sufficiency’ calls for the joint exploration of a minimum threshold as a central requirement of justice along with the idea of justice demanding respect for limits to resource use. The intuitive appeal of ‘double sufficiency’ derives from both aspects of sufficiency, and its urgency from the manifest failure to respect either one of them in current politics. Beyond such initial appeal, ‘double sufficiency’ is in need of clarification and justification. This paper presents the outline of a nature-respecting, capabilitarian conception. Its starting point is the dignity of all living beings and their central capabilities. In addition, the conception recognizes the role of moral agency via a priority principle of self-preservation. For both agency and patiency, the positional and quasi-positional nature of central capabilities plays an important role orienting intrinsic and instrumental reasons for an equal distribution. Far from being indifferent about distribution above a sufficiency threshold, this conception of sufficiency focuses on resources needed for living in dignity but demands that resource use above this threshold has to be justified. Thus we arrive at a nature-respecting sufficiency.