Biodiversity: Ethics and Aesthetics in the decentralization of the human in deep ecology and vital materialism

This paper analyzes the differences and, above all, a possible dialogue between the environmental ethics of Arne Naess's deep ecology and Jane Bennett's vital materialism, emphasizing the aesthetics that emerge from the relationship between humans, non-human animals, and planetary biodiversity. This approach uses the concepts of Delight (Naess) and Enchantment (Bennett), which play a crucial role in reshaping the hierarchical relationship humans have with animals, as discussed by both authors. For Arne Naess, Delight emerges from a change in thinking and moral values, forging an ethics that understands animals and the environment as having intrinsic value, thus allowing the pleasure of contemplating and relating to non-humans to flow. In Bennett, on the other hand, the concept of Enchantment is more central to her environmental ethics, as she understands that ethical values can emerge from the sharpening of sensory perception of how encounters with animals can affect humans. Although Delight stems from ethics rooted in human cognition and Enchantment comes before ethics, combining both perspectives creates a more realistic notion of intrinsic value with a more substantial impact on the ethical justification for biodiversity conservation.