ABSTRACT
By bringing together the theories of wisdom, moral learning and philosophy previously discussed, coalesced through life with non-human others into a practice of ‘symbiotic ethics’, this chapter will argue for moral knowledge being acquired through a familiarity with conflict. The inevitability of harm and the need for compromise will be suggested as something which is both eminently learned through permaculture and which can and should demonstrate the limits and shape of our ethical lives. In each of the many small and, in their own way, great lives lived in permaculture our virtues are tested. Killing, using, caring, loving, forgiving, being clever and ultimately being honest and brave, all of these are demanded by life with and for non-humans. The spirit and theory of moderation which has been central throughout this discussion will find definite application in an ethical-psychological ethos of ‘feeling bad’: to be good people we need to feel bad (not completely and overwhelmingly but abidingly). So this discussion will return to its Greek beginnings in its exploration of classical virtues and also in its flat contradiction of some theories of a good life being a ‘happy’ life. Sadness and regret are vital aspects of wisdom.
