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Abstract
My aim in this article to argue that wonder is a basic moral capacity, akin to the capacity for empathy, that is required for the virtue of environmental benevolence. I begin by examining Geoffrey Frasz’s account of benevolence as a set of environmental virtues, and I identify a gap that not only threatens the coherence of Frasz’s theory, but also points to an important cause of our widespread apathy toward the environment: the inherently limited and biased nature of the capacity for empathy. My proposal is that the capacity for wonder can fill this gap, that is, I think wonder can play the role in environmental benevolence that empathy plays in interpersonal benevolence.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
van Zyl, L. (2025). Wonder and empathy in environmental ethics. South African Journal of Philosophy, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2025.2462436
Date
2025
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
This is an accepted version of an article published in the South African Journal of Philosophy. © 2025 Informa UK Limited.