Study On Arne Naess' Deep Ecology Thought

How human beings survive intelligently under the ecological crisis has become the question of the times and a difficult problem for all countries.Deep ecology answers the question of this age.Deep ecology is an important environmental philosophical school rising in the West in the 1970s.It is considered as one of the representatives of radical environmentalism.For the radical environmentalists the ecological crisis is the crisis of value and cultural essentially,therefore,only if the New World view of the dualism from Newton-Descartes could be broken and a new view of nature,world outlook and ethics could be constructed,we could solve the environmental problems fundamentally.There appeared the thoughts like animal liberation theory,animal rights theory,biological equality theory,biological centralism,ecological centralism in the western environmental philosophy and ethics.Although these ideas differ greatly in theory and logic,they all call on human beings to realize the change of ethical ideas and call for human's moral concern for nature.In the tide of development of environmental ethics,Naess,a scholar in Norway,established a theory of eco centrism with shock power.The scholars of deep ecology with Naess as the representative broke through the limitations of shallow ecology,and explored world outlook,values,practices and green politics that aim to solve ecological crisis fundamentally.Deep ecology provides a way for mankind to survive in the era of ecological crisis.Deep thinking of environmental issues,as well as it includes a series of views and ideas such as holism,self-realization,deep ecology has a positive reference.For China's ecological civilization construction.Arne Naess,known as the father of "deep ecology,(Arne Naess,1912-2009)is a famous philosopher.He not only created the "deep ecology",a theory of ecological philosophy,but also led the deep ecological movement,which has an important influence in the academic circles and the environmental movement.It can be said that if one does not study deep ecology,there will be a fault on the understanding of western environmental philosophy and environmental ethics.If one does not understand his deep ecological thoughts,he will fail to comprehensively and profoundly understand the deep ecology.Naess's deep ecological thought is an important tool for people to reflect the ecological environmental problems,and his concept of environmental protection of holism has also become an important idea of environmental protection.Besides,his advocation of practice became an important reference to environmental protection.Systematically and comprehensively studying Naess's deep ecological thought to discover its unique features in philosophy and ethics,practice view and philosophical paradigm helps to make up for the deficiencies in the research field of western environmental ethics.This paper adopts literature research method,method of logical and historical consistency,and dialectical thinking method and other methods to comprehensively and systematically study Naess' deep ecology thought.This paper consists of seven chapters.The first chapter is introduction,which introduces the background and significance of taking Naess's deep ecology thought as the title and puts forward the innovation of this paper on the basis of the literature review to the domestic and foreign research status of his deep ecological thoughts.The second chapter mainly explores the formation and development of his deep ecology thoughts.Firstly,it introduces Naess' life and achievements,highlighting the unique geographical environment of his hometown,the culture of harmonious coexistence between the local people and nature,and the relationship between his education experiences and his strong ecological awareness.Subsequently,the author systemically discusses the era that makes Naess' deep ecological thought formed,and the process of its emergence,development and dissemination.The third chapter mainly introduces the origin of his deep ecology thought.The formation and production of deep ecology of Naess widely learnt from and absorbed the western and eastern non-anthropocentrism cultural resources,modern ecology,Gestalt psychology and phenomenology method.The non-anthropocentrism of western and eastern cultures absorbed by Naess includs non-anthropocentrism of Spinoza's philosophy,and the thought of equality of all things in the western culture.Also,he learnt from the Oriental thoughts,mainly including Oriental Buddhism holism,respect for life,Gandhi's non-violent resistance,self-realization and simple life pursuit.Moreover,He absorbed the ideas of holism in modern ecology and Gestalt psychology and formed his own holistic thinking.Based on the former theory,he constructed a complete theory of deep ecology.The fourth chapter discusses the characteristics of his deep ecology thought from three aspects of ontology,logical system and methodology.First of all,from the ontology and the world outlook.Naess holds a holistic view of realism and nature.He resolutely rejects the dualism that separates people and nature as well as the mechanical view of nature and human values brought by such dualism.He takes the world as an interconnected organic system contained by different elements like organic body and inorganic body.This system is a complex network of interconnection and mutual restriction.In ontology,Naess believes that all things are dynamic,variable,whole,interrelated and interdependent.His holistic view of realism and nature is called by deep ecological scholars a new paradigm of philosophy used to understand the relationship between man and nature,which is consistent with post-modern worldview.Secondly,from the logical structure,by using a formalized deductive process to connect his own view of philosophy and practice,he forms the basic logic system of deep ecology.Based on common philosophy and religion,he deduces deep ecology platform(deep ecology platform).On the basis of that,he provides a set of assumptions and principles,and draws some conclusions and guidance through logical deduction so as to construct a logic system of deep ecological thought with diversity and unity connected.To illustrate this point,he uses"apron map" to illustrate the logical relations between different levels,as well as the relationship between premise and conclusion.He uses top-down and top-down deductive methods in the "apron graph":top-down logic reasoning adopts the "hypothesis-conclusion"logical mode of deduction layer upon layer while down-top thinking adopts doubt-questioning mode,which is an extension of constantly questioning various "why"(whys)and "how"(hows).Thirdly,from the perspective of methodology,Ness's deep ecology method can be summed up as ecological phenomenology method,ecology method,deep questioning method,and intuition method.In addition to using general philosophical methods.Ness mainly uses the ecology method.In addition,he absorbed the rational elements of ancient skepticism,Gestalt psychology,phenomenology,intuitionism,systematic philosophy,analytical philosophy,Zen and taoism.The fifth chapter is divided into five parts to discuss the main content of his deep ecology thought.Firstly,this part analyzes his "ecological wisdom T"."Ecological wisdom T"is shaped after systemizing and philosophizing and abstracting his deep ecology thought,which embodies his survival wisdom in the time of ecological crisis,as well as provides a philosophical support for the deep ecology movement.In his " ecological wisdom T","Self-realization ",highest principle,is the starting point of deep ecology theory and the highest realm of the pursuit of the deep ecology movement.Ecological centralism closely related to Self-realization,is another supreme principle of deep ecology.The equality advocated by the deep ecology is about ecology.It is the complete egalitarianism which extends the scope of equality to the whole biosphere.Secondly,this part analyzes his "Self-realization" theory."Self-realization" is the highest principle of ecological wisdom T and deep ecology.In his opinion,self is extended to the "ecological self' and "great man" identified by nature.How to implement "Self-realization"?In his view the identification can realize the improvement and leap from individual to collective.According,he proposed the "identity paradigm",believing that through the emotional resonance can achieve the feeling of integration between human and substance.What is the ideal state of "Self-realization" under the paradigm of identity?Ness thought that the realm of "unity of man and nature" in "unity of all things" is the ideal realm that "Self-realization" can attain.Thirdly,this part analyzes practice principle of his deep ecological thought.In order to guide the deep ecology movement preferably,April 1984,Ness and Sessions published program of action called the deep ecology platform in California.The program expounds the basic propositions of the deep ecological movement in neutral and popular language,obtaining the universal recognition of the supporters of the deep ecological movement in different philosophical and religious positions.For the sake of avoiding misunderstanding and making deep ecology theory more clarified,later,Naess and Aessions replenished part of the program of action.Fourth,this part discusses the Naess' proposition of deep ecological practice advocated by Naess He believes that,first of all,we must change the modern human beings' view of the ecological issue fundamentally and pay more attention to the cultivation of deep ecological awareness.Path to cultivate the deep ecological consciousness advocated by Naess mainly has three aspects:strengthen ecological education,personal direct action close to nature and action in social and political spheres.He disagreed mal strategy to solve the shallow anthropocentrism and environmental pollution,conforming to the natural integrity protection strategy.He opposes consumerism and advocated to replace consumerism lifestyle with a simple way of life.He detailed the 25 kinds of deep ecology way of life.Fifth,this part discusses Naess' proposition of green political.He saw the greenization trend of international political development,and put forward his own ecological politics claims.In his opinion,only carrying on the implementation of green political strategy,we can solve the current difficulties faced by mankind.Naess believes that with the rise of deep ecological movement,the original political structure of the red and blue poles was broken,green became the third power in the political triangle.On his standpoint,pollution,resource,population and the number of non-human population are the core issue of ecological politics.He also carried out a deep ecological survey of the current popular theory of sustainable development and put forward the theory of sustainable development based on ecological wisdom".The sixth chapter introduces the criticism received by Naess's deep ecology and the response of Naess and academic field to the relevant criticisms.Since 1980s,the influence of deep ecology has spread throughout the western ecological movement.As a theory that was being revised and developed at that time,some people agreed it while some people were against it.Some of the critics are scholars from the inside of deep ecological movement,such as social ecologists,eco-feminists,and some are ecological philosophers like Kerry Caunt and Rawlston.The criticism to Naess's theory of ecological idea mainly focus on his two propositions of self achievement and eco-centrism equality.The criticism to Naess's practical advocation mainly embody his theory of depopulation and social justice.In response,Naess himself and other deep ecologists have responded.The seventh chapter analyzes the contributions and limitations of Naess's deep ecology,and its implications for Chinese construction of ecological civilization.As a representative of radical environmental movement,Ness's ecological holism provides a new way for environmental protection.The main contributions of deep ecology thought include creating an ecological world outlook consistent with the post-modern spirit,providing the possibility for human beings to step up to ecological society,providing a new holistic concept of environmental protection and a plain means of personal life of "simple means and rich purpose",advocating taking theory into practice,and etc.The limitations of his deep ecology are mainly reflected on the lack of preciseness of theory,the inadequate verification from ecology to deep ecology,the suspicion of falling into dualism in thinking model,the mysterious inclination brought by tuition in methodology,the lack of enough attention to the problem of social injustice,and etc.In western countries,such as North America,the idea of deep ecology has penetrated into many fields of society,politics,economy and culture.With the development of globalization,deep ecology has been expanding all over the world,and it has also aroused widespread debate and brought great ideological impact in developing countries.Naess's deep ecology thought provides positive reference and enlightenment for Chinese construction of ecological civilization and environmental protection.