From Theory to Practice: Relational Interdependent Ethics and Compassion for the Nonhuman World

Amid the growing urgency and complexity of contemporary crises affecting animals and the environment, ethical theory is often called upon to provide practical guidance. Prevailing approaches in animal and environmental ethics attempt to extend ethical theories to include nonhuman entities. Yet these approaches often overlook the practical applicability of the theories themselves. Accordingly, this thesis explores ethical frameworks better suited to addressing the mutually implicating nature of animal well-being and environmental health. Using an assessment method drawn from the distinction between a theory’s theoretical function (articulating moral parameters and obligations) and its practical function (guiding agents in deliberation), I argue first that dominant Western theory, even in contemporary revisions, fall short in their capacity to guide action in contexts characterised by large-scale interrelated harms, and, second, that non-Western interdependent relational frameworks—te ao Māori and First Nations/Native American philosophy—more aptly offer moral guidance in an agents practical thinking by making obligations to animals and the environment intelligible as responsibilities within an interwoven moral world. However, I further argue that the inseparable cosmological foundations of non-Western Relational Ethics pose a barrier to their practical uptake in secular, individualistic contexts. This leads me to propose a provisional theory of compassionate thinking, informed by Nussbaum’s account of compassion and grounded in evaluative recognition of co-flourishing, to preserve the strengths of relational thinking where metaphysical commitments are not shared. Reorienting toward such relational approaches, I reason, charts a path forward for guiding ethical action where it is needed most—the well-being of animals and the environment.