Comparative Analysis Of African Environmental Ethics And Confucian Environmental Ethics
In this paper I will try to show the similarities and difference between African environmental ethics and Confucian environmental ethics. First I will describe their environmental discourse that they both advocate and later on I will show their similarities and difference. And at last I will try to give some concluding remarks.
African environmental ethics
African environmental ethics is always accused of being anthropocentric. Some environmental ethicists characterized African environmental ethic to be irrational by the Eurocentric philosophers. But the reality is very different. There are a number of Africa traditions that prove this assumption wrong. Ubuntu, Ukama and Yoruba can be a good example to prove it wrong. Ubuntu is a major strand of moral philosophy in Africa. Although the origin of Ubuntu is south Africa but it can refer to large majority of people in the sub-Saharan region. The concept of Ubuntu is “a person is a person through other persons”. This means the identity of a person is determined by the relation he/she have in a group. Ubuntu cultural beliefs and values and is the essence of being human. It comes in many cultures in different manners. Ubuntu was created in African villages to connect humans together with respect and love, and effectively strengthened human personal communication and communication with others, including family and community, and these strengthened the community and country. The concept of being is fundamentally connected with relationality. The notion of Ubuntu is I am related therefore we are. It is co-being not only with human but also with nature. Because Ubuntu advocates that human beings are part of nature. Ubuntu also advocates that human beings have the natural duty to care for themselves and thereby for the physical nature. So this can proof that African environmental ethic is not anthropocentric. Ubuntu (humanness) is a concrete form of Ukama (relatedness) in that human interrelationship within society. Ukama is a Shona word implying relationship and an understanding of reality in terms of interdependence. In Ukuma relatedness connect all spheres of existence. Ukama means being related or belonging to the same family. In Ukuma there is a notion that harmony between the past, present and future. Murove argued that Immortality of values leads to the ethical significance of ancestors Ukama between the living and the ancestors is based on the conviction that the individual or the present community is inseparably related to the past. This is ancestorhood is not limited to relations between humans but extends to other spheres of existence. This notion of Ukama advances the idea of a unifying principle linking the identity or a person or community to past and future generations and the natural world. These notions of Ukuma show the interdependence of human being with nature. It also shows the harmony of nature and human beings.
Confucian environmental ethics
Confucianism is a major strand of Chinese moral philosophy. Confucianism is the ideas of a successful teacher of the world ever know, Confucius. He was a Chinese philosopher. Some of his ideas are familiar to most of us. He was an intellect who expounded teachings that would deal with how a nation, community and individual ought to behave in order to achieve harmony on earth. His work is now being treated as different philosophies because it addressed different issues in different periods of time. Confucian taught two concepts about environment ethics: 1. Zhengming (Rectification of names) and 2. datong (Great Harmony). Zhengming is a concept that everyone should fulfill their duty to the utmost in accordance with their individual roles. Datong is Confucius’ political ideal and emphasizes gong (public) as a spirit for caring for tian xia (all under Heaven). A Confucian-style harmonious society is achieved by letting every being manifest its mandate to the full. From this view, zhengming emphasizes that humans fulfill their responsibility of being humans’. This means that Confucius has taught the people that humans should take responsibility toward the natural world.
Compare and contrast
Both Confucian environmental ethics and African environmental ethics share experience of underestimation and denigration. They were under both underrated and undervalued by Eurocentric philosophers. Confucius centralized his teaching on humanness, like wise Ubuntu is also translated as humanness. They are both concerned about interdependence between nature and human beings. They also argue that they have some unity and connection with their ancestors so they advocate the harmony between nature and human beings. They both recognize the proper place of non-human in the cosmic world. When we come to the difference between Confucian and African environmental ethics we can think of the exaggerated value the Confucian ethics give to animals even for smallest insect. But in African ethics animals are not given much value as they are given in the Confucian ethics. In African environmental ethics human beings are mere co-occupants of nature with other species without any heavenly mandate to dominate, subdue, and exploit nature but in the Confucian environmental ethics there is a heavenly mandate that order them not to dominate and exploit nature.
Works Cited
- Christensen, J. E. (2014). Building an Environmental Ethics from. Asian Philosophy: An International Journal of the philosophic tradtion of the east, 208. murove, M. F. 2009.
- African Ethics: An Antology of compative and applied ethics: an african enivronment ethic based on the concepts of Ukuma and Ubuntu. scottsivll, south African University of Kwazulu-Natal Press. p315-529 Tosam, M. J. (2019). African Environmental Ethics and Sustainable. Open Journal of Philosophy, 174.
