Ethical Attitude of the Individual Towards Climate Change: Reflections on Certain Philosophical Aspects

Abstract

As the planet’s climate continues to warm, the issue of climate change becomes increasingly urgent, prompting experts from various fields to approach it from diverse perspectives. Climatologists investigate long-term climatic changes and their causes, economists evaluate the potential impacts on economies, while sociologists explore how societal values, culture, and individual beliefs shape attitudes toward climate change and its environmental implications. Philosophers, in turn, address epistemological, ontological and ethical questions related to this global challenge. Notably, it was Western scientists who first sounded the alarm about the dangers of climate change. This article proposes two main theses: (1) an ethical reorientation of the individual is essential for addressing climate change effectively; and (2) dialogical communication and ecological intimacy offer transformative frameworks for fostering a deeper ethical commitment to environmental sustainability. To test these theses, the study employs a hermeneutic methodology that analyses the philosophical insights of Algis Mickūnas, a Lithuanian émigré philosopher, and Thomas Kasulis, an American philosopher of Lithuanian descent. Their reflections are situated within the context of exile, which provides unique perspectives on ethical orientation toward the environment. The results reveal that Mickūnas’s concept of dialogical communication and Kasulis’s notion of ecological intimacy illuminate meaningful dimensions of an individual’s ethical orientation toward their lived environment. These philosophical insights suggest a path forward for fostering a deeper ethical engagement with the challenges posed by climate change.