Research: Ecology, contingecy e complexity: new evolutionary perspectives for environmental ethicsMy project aims to demonstrate that the theoretical proposals of the "new extended evolutionary synthesis" can make a relevant contribution to the discussion of environmental ethics, focusing especially on the problem of the value and conservation of biodiversity. Taking into consideration, in the philosophical context of the concepts of contingency and complexity, the Niche Construction Theories and considering the results of the new discipline of Eco-evo-devo, the necessary changes useful to a redefinition and systematization of the concepts of nature, biological life and the organism-environment relationship will be studied. Indeed, the concept of contingency and the development of complexity sciences represent a significant point of intersection between evolutionism and ecology by virtue of the new importance that the concepts of irreversibility, self-organization, nonlinearity and co-evolution acquire, both from a theoretical and epistemological point of view. The metaphor of evolution as a "drama" and ecology as the "theater" in which it takes place is useful in order to show how a complex interdisciplinary network is essential, both for any reflection on the relationship between homo sapiens and the ecosystems that they inhabit as "evolutionary subject", and for the correct definition of what the object of ethical decisions in the field of conservation of biological diversity should be.
keywords
Philosophy of biology, Evolutionism, Environmental Ethics, Contingency, Complexity, Biodiversity