Development and Ethics: Exploring Conceptual Bridges Between Personalism and Ecology

This paper explores the relationship between personalism and ecological values. It rejects the notion that personalism and ecology are unrelated fields, showing that personalism influenced early sustainability concepts. Personalism is a philosophical exploration of a novel understanding of what it means to be human. Scholars in this tradition aim to articulate this understanding, connect it to previous views of humanity, safeguard it against extremes, highlight its social and ecological implications, and promote a relational approach to development and ethics. We suggest that the lens of Integral Human Development constitutes a helpful conceptual bridge between personalism and ecology. In the paper, the analysis focuses on the integrality aspects: horizontal integrality (development of all individuals) and vertical integrality (development of the whole person). Horizontal integrality is linked to social and political issues and is broadly discussed in the literature. However, the discussion of vertical integrality remains limited. We seek to bridge this gap by addressing the link between personalism and ecology by (i) nurturing our spiritual dimension, (ii) establishing our ethical boundaries, and (iii) tackling future challenges related to technocracy and climate change. The analysis proposes a framework for conceptual convergence, recognizing the significant contributions that personalism can provide to the global policy agenda.