Abstract
In this essay, we aim to ground an alliance between Cynthia Willett’s
theory of an ethics of eros and Hasana Sharp’s argument for a politics
of renaturalization. Both approaches seek a vocabulary and practices
for ethical life, which is not circumscribed by the requirement of rationality and is deeply attentive to relationships.
The relations to which an ethics of eros and renaturalization must attend
include social relations – the tender ministrations of mothers, lovers, and
friends that sustain and nourish (and sometimes threaten) each of us. Our
lives, bodies, and minds, however, are also deeply involved with the nonhuman
environment. Our existence depends on air, water, bacteria, shelter,
and infinite other nonhuman beings. Our desires and needs include a
habitable environment and even "biophilia." The increasing fragility of our ecosystems suggests that there is more need
than ever for an ethics that goes not just beyond man – although that is
certainly an ongoing project – but beyond the human. This essay is an
attempt to ally our approaches in the feminist effort to produce a broad
basis for ethics, allowing for a robust consideration of nonhuman nature.