RT Article
T1 An Ecological Conception of Personhood
JF Environmental ethics
VO 45
IS 1
SP 71
OP 92
A1 Smith, Andrew F. 1972-
LA English
PB Center for Environmental Philosophy, University of North Texas
YR 2023
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/185091494X
AB Centering Indigenous philosophical considerations, ecologies are best understood as kinship arrangements among humans, other-than-human beings, and spiritual and abiotic entities who together through the land share a sphere of responsibility based on both care and what Daniel Wildcat calls "multigenerational spatial knowledge." Ecologically speaking, all kin can become persons by participating in processes of socialization whereby one engages in practices and performances that support responsible relations both within and across ecologies. Spheres of responsibility are not operable strictly within human relationships, nor do what count as responsibilities necessarily center on the human. No being is born a person or automatically earns this status. Personhood must be gained and can be lost. Indeed, under current ecological conditions across the planet, we arguably inhabit a world full of marginal cases.
DO 10.5840/enviroethics202333052