Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to analyze the environmental crisis in terms of the concept of modernity and, taking into account a concern for nature, discuss an ethics of responsibility that can influence the practices of science and politics. The discussion takes as a reference several authors who have analyzed modernity and its relation to the context of the crisis, which is understood as a result of the experimental character of the expansion of science and techniques. The solutions presented here are directed along different paths. The first involves a position that implies modifying all elements of the modernization of society. The second path fits into the structure of existing technical and scientific progress, but advocates modifying regulative values. Both possibilities demonstrate the need to consider that the actions of science should be part of core policy discussions, as they fall within the political context of the exercise of an ethical position amidst the environmental crisis. It is therefore necessary to create new institutional arrangements for critical debate, under the conditions of the various risks produced in society.
Keywords:
Environmental crisis; Modernity; Ethics of responsibility; Politics