From Shared Enaction to Intrinsic Value. How Enactivism Contributes to Environmental Ethics
Topoi May 31, 2021 K. Werner, Magdalena Kiełkowicz-werner 15 citations
Environmental ethics and enactivism, two philosophical movements that rethink human-environment relationships, rarely engage with each other. This analysis bridges them by using enactivist concepts to examine intrinsic value, a central idea in environmental ethics. The authors argue that intrinsic value exists but is not independent of human interests and needs. Instead, it emerges through a process they call shared enaction of an axiological domain, grounded in enactivist principles like autonomy, enaction, participatory sense-making, and loving as knowing. This reframes intrinsic value as relationally constituted rather than inherent.