[RESUMEN] ABSTRACT

Ecologists formulate their scientific theories influenced by ethical values and, in turn, environmental ethicists value nature based on scientific theories. Darwinian evolutionary theory provides clear examples of these complex links, illustrating how these reciprocal relationships do not constitute a closed system, but are underdetermined and open to the influences of two broader worlds: the socio-cultural and the natural environment. On one hand, the n conception of a common evolutionary origin and ecological connectedness has promoted a respect for all forms of life. On the other hand, the metaphors of struggle for existence and natural selection appear as problematic because they foist onto nature the Hobbsenian model of a liberal state, Malthusian model of economy and the productive practice of artificial selection, all which reaffirm modern individualism and the profit motive, that are at the roots of our current environmental crisis. These metaphors were included in the original definitions of ecology and environmental ethics, by Haeckel and Leopold, respectively, and are still pervasive among both ecologists and ethicists. To suppose that these n notions, derived from a modern-liberal worldview, are a fact of nature, constitutes a misleading interpretation. Such supposition represents a serious impediment to our aim of transforming our relationship with the natural world in order to overcome the environmental crisis. To achieve a radical transformation in environmental ethics we require a new view of nature. The analysis developed here could be valuable for other fundamental ecological theories. For example, in ecosystem theory the basic concept that the whole is more than the sum of the parts has been borrowed from holistic philosophy. In turn, ecosystem theory has been a reference for the support of other approaches to environmental ethics, such as deep ecology. By making these relations explicit we can be self-aware in adopting and creating, and more flexible for respecting different ethical and scientific points of view. We can also analyze the consistency between scientific theories and desired environmental values and social goals. Furthermore, we can recover the link between theory and praxis, between knowing about nature and living in the natural world, thus enriching and reinforcing mutually environmental ethics and ecological science in continuous dialectical and dynamic relationships.