Review article
The Sacred and the Profane in the Context of Bioethics: Ecotoxicology and the Disturbance of the Balance in the Ecosystem
Marina Katinić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6430-3006
; Studentica Doktorskog studija filozofije Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu
Abstract
Integrative bioethics aims to shed light on bioethical issues by incorporating different perspectives – natural sciences, law, philosophy, cultural, etc. One of the issues is ecological toxicity, which has lethal effects on humans as well as other living species. The genesis of this issue goes back to the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment when Cartesianism and Baconianism influenced the development of instrumental rationality as the founding principle of scientific and technological civilization. The source of its crisis is in its underlying paradox: the subject is separated from the object – from nature, which is understood as mechanical, res extensa, without inner purpose. The subject objectifies itself by determining its own purpose, which is achieved by controlling and exploiting nature. In the end, humans themselves become objects of this objectivization. This process is accompanied by secularization, disenchantment and de-sacralization of the world. The paper poses the question on the relationship between the sacred and the profane, two styles of existence as responses to these processes. Additionally, the paper asks whether the principle of the sacred can contribute to the establishment of bioethical responsibility.
Keywords
ecosystem; ecosophy; instrumental rationality; integrative bioethics; responsibility; profane; sacred; life
Hrčak ID:
100337
URI
Publication date:
14.4.2013.
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