The Ontology of Ecology

Abstract

Maria-Teresa Teixeira develops an eco-axiological ontology which not only takes account of Whitehead’s claim that “life is robbery” but also that every being has intrinsic value by virtue of its own self-attained existence. In accounting for the problem of life’s emergence, Teixeira draws on Whitehead’s rejection of the “bifurcation of nature” and insists that the reincorporation of human experience in and as nature, suggests that life emerges from self-enjoyment and self-creation. In articulating how Whitehead’s “theory of immanence” ecologically situates not only human bodies in nature, but also God, Teixeira also reveals Whitehead’s concept of “society,” arguing that the emergence of eco-social order also informs our understanding of the notion of natural law, ecological ethics and human law. For Teixeira, Whitehead’s organic, ontology does much to lay the metaphysical groundwork for avoiding the ontological evil of ecocide.