A study from the UJI defends the transition to a new ecological self-awareness



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## A study from the UJI defends the transition to a new ecological self-awareness

04/08/2016 |
SCP

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* [![ ecosofia Irene_Comins_16DLL08](/com/investigacio/arxiu/noticies/2016/8/ecosofia/Irene_Comins_16DLL08.jpg)](#)

A research carried out by the lecturer Irene Comins, from the Department of Philosophy and Sociology at the Universitat Jaume I, criticizes the fact that contemporary society “legitimizes the instrumental manipulation of natural resources, while nature has become an object of capitalism”. The results of this study, which defends the transition to a new ecological self-awareness, have been published in *Daimon, Revista Internacional de Filosofía*.

Irene Comins addresses the contributions of the philosophy of care to the ecological thinking and recommends the review of “certain ‘centrisms’ which exclude or reduce our perception of reality, such as the hierarchy of superiority of the human beings over the environment”, states the researcher at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. In fact, this work intends to build an *ecosophy*: an ecological philosophy capable of guiding the great change of ideas that has taken place in recent decades in relation to environmental degradation.

This study presents the Earth Charter –promoted by the United Nations for environmental protection, human rights, equal development and peace– as an example of international declaration that takes the philosophy of care as part of the frame of sense to build a new ecological awareness. Comins remembers that the history of Western thought, except for some specific currents, “has been characterized by anthropocentrism, that is, by placing the human beings on a higher plane in relation to nature”.

On the one hand, in her opinion, “nature is conceptualized as an inert material capable of being the subject of a instrumentalized relationship at the service of human beings. Western science, with its Galilean tradition, has contributed to the transformation of nature from a lively and nurturing mother into an inert and manipulable matter, a conceptual transformation that was perfectly suited to the demands of exploitation of capitalism”. And, on the other hand, “the human being, individualistic, has forgotten its earthiness, its intimate connection with the environment”, argues Comins.

**WOMEN’S LEGACY**

On the way to a new ecological self-awareness, the UJI lecturer considers particularly interesting “to look towards the voices silenced by the hegemonic Western thought: those of women and of non-Western people”. The main ecological contributions from these two voices have, according to the author, “some points in common: a view that considers life as sacred, earth as a mother and its living beings as deeply interconnected”.

Irene Comins’ research focuses on the contributions of the legacy of women to the construction of this new ecological awareness. “Before the discriminatory logic of domination and economic accumulation –she asserts–, we have to promote an alternative logic of the sustainability of life, which is built on the relational axis of care. The historical attribution to women of the tasks of care has forced them to develop certain moral skills –of maintaining connections, sustainability and life care– that we discover now as a source of a biocentric worldview”.

Before the logic of economic accumulation, “the logic of the sustainability of life gives a priority place to survival, health maintenance, and tasks of reproduction and care. These tasks, besides maintaining life, provide the practical understanding that nature must be preserved if we want to survive”, she concludes.

Irene Comins is a lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Sociology in the Universitat Jaume I (Castelló, Spain) and director of the Interuniversity Institute of Social Development and Peace in the same institution. She has conducted research at the Department of Peace Studies in the University of Bradford (UK) and has participated in different international conferences at the universities of Giessen (Germany) and Toluca (Mexico). Her main research interests revolve around the philosophy for peace and gender studies. Her publications include the monograph *Filosofía del cuidar, una propuesta coeducativa para la paz* (Icaria, 2009) and the recent articles «De víctimas a sobrevivientes: la fuerza poiética y resiliente del cuidar» in *Convergencia Revista de Ciencias Sociales* (2015, vol. 22, No. 67) and «La ética del cuidado en sociedades globalizadas: hacia una ciudadanía cosmopolita» in *Thémata. Revista de Filosofía* (2015, No. 52).

Comins Mingol, Irene (2016): «La filosofía del cuidado de la Tierra como ecosofía» in *Daimon, Revista Internacional de Filosofía*, No. 67, 133-148.

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