La question du fondement dans l’éthique et le problème de l’environnement

Resumen

This paper adresseses the search for an “ethics of survival”, an aspiration emerged from the increasing anxiety generated by the social and environmental degradation that threatens the future of mankind. Within this distressing situation, there is a reappearance in the field of ethical thinking of the spontaneous idea that an everlasting foundation for ethical precepts is required. With this intention in mind, the architects of universal ethics usually appeal to nature. Based on the arguments of David Hume, a critique is made of this equivoque that tries to derive ethical norms from the descriptive level, such tentative being based on a metaphysical-theological reflection, or on an empirical construction. As an alternative to this foundationist pretension, in the conclusion are presented pluralistic arguments for a pragmatical and theoretical development of ethical valuation.

Key words: Ethics foundations, naturalistic fallacy, evolutionary ethics, autopoiesis, constructivism, intuition, naturalism.