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Environmental Ethics: The Ethic Fulcrum Of The Harmonious Relationship Between Human And Nature

Posted on:2009-02-10Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115360245964587Subject:Philosophy of science and technology
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Philosophy is the epoch of thought. Real philosophy is the sign of the spirit of the times, as well as the theoretical rethinking on and surpasses to practice activities. At various times, and/or under different time streams, differential philosophy topics are formed with regards to the historical fates of temporal social development, as its inevitably theoretical orientations. Nowadays, one of the greatest challenges humanity confronts is how to rationally deal with the environmental crisis and subsequent survival dilemma resulted from human activities. Consequently, the times spirit should be obligated to demonstrate the consciousness of humanity on such particular issue. Based on issues of current times, namely, the environmental crisis and human survival dilemma, the generation of environmental ethics is considered as a symbol that human beings are laying hopes on ethic or moral forces as a stream of realistic power, or as an intrinsic mechanism to solve the existing disturbing problems.The origination, formation, and evolution of a theory were stimulated by the most direct and radical social realities, particularly for environmental ethics with prominent practice features. As an always-hot topic in theoretical research fields, environmental ethics related topics have been broadly and deeply argued by international and domestic researchers, producing several classic specialty theories. Nevertheless, such arguments were mainly covering several aspects, including nature value, human centered principle, non-human centered principle and so on. Such arguments, to certain extent, ignored the requisition on insights of environmental ethics'recessive existence base and intrinsic logic fundament. However, in addition to theoretical assumptions, the formation and evolution of any integrated theory must acquire certain realistic roots and theoretical fundamentals, which is an applicable principle for origination and formation of environmental ethics. According to such realistic and theoretical backgrounds, this paper focused on narrating how environmental ethics turned out to be an ethic fulcrum for human-nature relations, with an overall logic clue linking ontology, epistemology, the theory of value, by firmly sticking onto five aspects as environmental ethics'generation background, origination roots, evolution courses, corresponding modern constructions, as well as environmental ethics'value and significances, to perform a more comprehensive argument.Firstly, investigating environmental ethics'generation background with a novel view on reflects between nature and civilization, indicated the prominent significance of theoretically discussing environmental ethics, as well as implied the necessity of rethinking the sever influences caused by such an issue to human survival and development. Meanwhile, since the environmental ethics is a product of revolutionaries in human civilization and thinking, taking the argument on nature-civilization reflects as the cutting point, provided with a new access to a better understanding of its generation background. The environmental ethics'ultimate destination is to build up a bilateral fusion between nature and civilization, between nature value and human value, to realize harmonious development state between human and nature by linking up human world and natural world.Regarding the relationships between human and nature, at the stage of primitive culture, the humanity was generally respecting and somewhat afraid of nature. Then, at the stage of agricultural culture, the routine social mechanism was following the natural principles. However, after the emergence of industrial culture, human beings were unprecedently strengthened to perform intervening activities onto nature. And finally, the concept and behavior of exploring nature exceeded the limit that nature could bear, which rang the alarm for the whole humanity. The historical evolution of natural outlook affected different understandings of nature and civilization concepts. Such evolution resulted from historical development of human practice activities. Just for the reason that historical developments of human practice continuously altered the realistic relationships between human and nature, the significance of nature to human survival was gradually changed, so did the human beings'attitudes to nature. The concept evolutions of nature and civilization demonstrated natural outlooks of different stages, more over, influenced and reformed human beings'practice style and thinking style. The civilization achievements of humanity implied the possibilities of humanity'unlimited development and possibilities of continual civilization advances. The control and conquer on nature by industrial civilization caused damage and plunder to nature, the root of civilization, consequently resulted in the deconstruction of nature and humanity survival homeland.The industrial civilization promoted the demon-dispelling process gradually completed, by depriving the natural traits and intrinsic properties in humanity world. The natural world seemed never a significant and valuable existence without humanity. Applying mechanical natural outlook in industrial civilization, nature was regarded as a machine, with each part linked mechanically. Reflects between nature and civilization brought forward a consequence that socially civilized selection took the place of zoeticly natural selection. The civilized choice of life style was compatible to modern techniques, which, bit by bit, departed primitive natural life style. Modification of the humanity-nature relationship mode needs novel fundamental changes to humanity value, which indicates a radical reconciliation of humanity-nature reciprocity.Secondly, the origination root of environmental ethics was uncovered, which showed that human beings'activities to conquer nature had completely gone outside of mental anticipation, being present practice activity contents of modern humanity. The core of environmental issues is an ethic crisis induced by humanity psychological ecology or value views. The ethics anomie urges the emergence of environmental ethics. Therefore, the origination roots of environmental ethics appeared as environmental crisis, value crisis and subsequently induced ethics crisis.Taking humanity as the supreme master and nature merely the objective to meet humanity's desires was the mentally starting movement to depart from nature. Under the control of the subject and object opposition concepts, human beings made nature only the objective for desire, which removed the bases for nature's independent existence, also encouraged the barbarous attitude to incontinently conquer, possess and waste natural resources.The humanity carried disintegration and recombination on nature according to private goals. Human beings are living in a day by day fragmented life style, while the natural overall value is also fragmented into humanity's usefulness value. The fragmentation of integrated value is determined by the trait of industry civilized machine production, also depends on the mechanism world outlook. This inevitably turned nature to a pure material world. The natural existence turned to be non-significant as"just for humanity's existence", with natural objects only having"the consumption value", and existing only dependent on human beings'decision.Abstract humanitarianism takes the human as standard of value, and individual benefit is considered supreme, attempting to understand, stipulate and reshape objects based on value requests from human beings, which thus caused the material to be compatible to man kinds, twisted by the humanity to be objects of human beings. The concept that"development is the inevitable result which is reasonable"causes human beings to perform infinitely developing, conquering nature, getting farther and farther away from the primary nature. The nature becomes the humanized nature produced for and utilized by human beings, never obtaining the ontological natural dispositional comfortable nature, which blocked the access to environmental ethics.Thirdly, evolution curve of environmental ethics was rationally unveiled by collating and inspecting western environmental ethics theories. Further more, based on this, analyzing and criticizing its theoretical flaw and practical bias, setting up the fundament for further discussion of environmental ethics theory's internal logic developmental stems, grasping the thought connotation and theoretical essence.Through elaboration of Western environmental ethics'formation prerequisites and major points, the author showed that its thought has the progressive significance, but actually still unable to get rid of the theoretical difficult position:"To be"from ontological concept could not lead to the theory of value concept"Should be"; The nature intrinsic value concept is not independence of humanity, which neglected the value's natural trait,"belonging to human", and appeared with invalidity. Seeking theoretical basis from the religious doctrine to clarify humanity's loss of being essence of human is impossible to fundamentally solve environment problems. The thoughts on western environmental ethics not only initiated attention to environmental issues, but profoundly touched people's world outlook and value, causing people to ponder relationships between self and non-self, individual and overall, humanity and nature. Manner of the human taking one kind of psychic transcendence existence, only then establishes"the aware manner"consciousness, which can lead us to reasonably, carefully and realistically examine the person and the nature harmonious myriad world chasing in our spiritual homelands .Fourthly, the author attempted to analyze the modern construction of environmental ethics, by regarding the environmental ethics'four aspects, referring to the real connotation, value foundation, ethics criterion, and appraisal criterion, from the theory interior, to irrevocably seek argument basis on which environmental ethics does become the ethics'foothold for humanity and nature reciprocity.With respect to legislation orientation, the human centered principle is human legislate to nature, while the natural central principle is the nature legislate to human, thus it is thought that environmental ethics is human legislate to themselves. Further more, in ethics manner, the construction of environmental ethics dispelled the two-pole opposition pattern, promoting humanity to ponder relationships between human beings and nature, individual and overall, as well as self and non-self, to pursue a global harmonious paragenesis state between humanity and natural myriad. As the value prerequisite of environmental ethics, life value made equality to form the ethic fundamental and value guidance for human and nature. Only the full and sufficient development of natural ecological value and environmental value could solve the paradox on humanity survival, and establish real theoretical value foundation. In addition, between the human survival and the environment has the inseparable relations, reasonably, the survival concept should also become ultimate ethical behavioral concern. The environment ethical criterion should include considerations on individual survival and humanity sustainable survival and development.The construction of environmental ethics needs"Copernicus's-like revolution"in thinking field, to establish the appraisal criterion for environmental ethics, and conform to humanity's sustainable survival and development goals, with adapting to ecological civilization. We must first understand human-nature relationship comprehensively, with view of human beings as a zoetic existence and transcendent existence. The harmony between human and nature is an intrinsic autonomous harmony for self, also an external harmonious unification. To realize human-nature harmony, we cannot blindly deny human beings'independent rationality. On the contrary, based on the acknowledgement of human being's centrality, humanity as well as the relationship's limit between object and subject, human beings should clarify the rational limits for human centrality and humanity realization, making efforts to realize ultimate human-nature harmonious unity.Finally, the environmental ethics'theory value and practice significance were elucidated. This paper pointed out that we should not only understand environmental ethics'enormous value in improving social development and living standards, reconciling human-nature relations, but also, we should highly recognize its metaphysical humanities value in philosophy perspective, to obtain a genuine ecological wisdom. The philosophical significance of environmental ethics should be aimed at achieving unceasingly innovational renewal of view and outlook of human nature, through the highest level of spiritual expressing rethinking.From the perspective of theoretical value, environmental ethics attempted to enlighten and annotate human-nature relations from philosophy world outlook and methodology, by deducing ethics objective scope to overall nature, from the aspect of environmental ethics, globally and essentially reevaluate the complicated"human-nature-society"systems, to set up new value outlooks, as well as readjust human behavior patterns and practice activities with brand new environment philosophical thinking mode.From the perspective of practical significance, by one comprehensive way, at concrete historical stage, environmental ethics improved human individual to be a real complete human being, to form a correspondent significance. This is considered as a reasonable ethical situation for human and nature, also an indispensable prerequisite for social harmonious development. The environmental ethics achievement was realized as an important condition to accomplish human beings'full-scale development, which established the ecological harmonious civilization, coordinated development interpersonal harmonious concept and full scale development in physical and psychological harmonious concept. The spiritual milieu of highlighting environmental ethics displayed human ideal and dreaming orientation, which should be a kind of noble state a human being.Conclusively, as the theory shape the human self-awareness, also as the processor and mediator of human-nature relations, environmental ethics throughout existed as deep-level foundation of human thinking and behavior. This article is devoted to argument and development of how environmental ethics demonstrated as an ethical foothold for human-nature, through which to call on human beings to control productive activities within bearing threshold of nature, to standardize and restrain humanity's practice, guarantying the sustainability of human survival and development by accomplishing the transformations from individual consciousness to category consciousness, from absolute objective consciousness to limited objective consciousness, from current consciousness to future consciousness. Nowadays, as the rapid development of scientific technology, with the increasingly prominent conflicts between environmental issues and human survival, the profound significances of such theoretical argument and development would clearly take on through surpassing the shielding by prompt modernization velocity. With magnificent realistic value, this paper is aimed at providing with essential theoretical reservations for establishing environment ethical disciplines of Chinese characteristics.
Keywords/Search Tags:Environmental Ethics, Human and Nature, Harmony, Sustainable Development
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