A Study Of The Ecological Ethics In The20^th Century Western Literature Works

Eco-ethics is a subject governing the ethical relationship, concerning the relationship between human’s society, natural system and social environment system. When eco-ethics development undergoes the transformation from morphology study to noumenon study, eco-ethics study scope, accordingly, extends to such areas as ecological science, environmental science, philosophy and sociology.Twentieth century is a crucial stage for human technological construction, whereas it is also the most drastic period when human being’s ecological ethics is dissimilated. While attaining upheaval goals in our material enrichment, we are confronted with multiple challenges, namely, resources, environment and population crisis. How to lead a green life and rationally use our limited resources have become the thorny problems we have to handle. To nurture correct ethical morality depends not only on the rational teaching and edifice from philosophical education, but also on the close-to-life-style inspirations. To explore ecological philosophy from literature works casts light on the environmental and ecological connotation in the traditional literature works, other than its literature significance. This thesis is based on the20th century western literature works. Following this time clue and based on the ecological basic theories, the thesis explores the ecological philosophy evolution in the20th century literature works. The ecological reflections in literature works are featured by multiple-dimension, wide-perspective and uncertainty. In the literature works which involve ecological development, some of them are not the most representative products of the time; neither do they signify obvious ecological philosophy trend. But they are a dynamic part of the chain of ecological ethics. And beyond any doubt, they are a vital part of the multiple tiers of social ecological ethics.The introduction part is a brief introduction to the background and significance of the thesis, including the development process and attainment of both overseas and domestic study on the cross-border study between ecology, ecological ethics and literature. This part also includes the study framework and study method of the thesis.In order to demonstrate the necessity of this study, chapter Ⅱ develops itself by time sequence and classification of literature schools, combining the literature development history and that of philosophy. This comparison discloses the correlation between literature evolution and philosophical evolution and the exposing tightening correlation of the two subjects. This part emphasizes that the interaction between literature and ecological ethics does not mean the arbitrary conversion of the value and culture morphology between them.Chapter III lays a foundation for analyzing the ethical values in the20th century literature works, briefing on the literature tide before the20th century, namely, Romanticism. The Chapter gives prominence to the influence engendered by Romanticism on the eco-traits of the20th century western literature. The nature of the eco-traits is also analyzed here.Chapter IV, V and VI are the main body of the thesis, classifying the20th century western literature by three phases:from the beginning of the century to the30th, the Second World War period and Post-Modernism Period during the1960s to1990s. The paper focuses on the obvious and underlying ecological reflection in literature during different times. This layout of the paper is based on the feature of the20th century, its social background and the philosophical tides, protruding the sociality and history heritage of literature works. Each chapter begins its analysis by the introduction of the most prominent ecological ethics of the time, comparing the same period’s literature works, thus summarizing the coordination and deviation between literature works and mainstream ecological assertions. By such analysis, the ecological features of the literature works are exposed, that’s, the ecological reflections in20th century literature works mirror a correlation in such influence as anticipatory, leading, synchronically and delaying, compared with the mainstream ethical assertions.Chapter VII is the conclusion part of the thesis, highlighting the significance and originality of this thesis, revealing the significance and originality of it in terms of heterogeneity, anticipation and pluralism.The objective of the thesis is to guide the audience, with the multiple-culture social background, to have an authentic understanding about the fundamental influence of nature on human being’s spirit and culture in the process of digesting the original literature works. We should abolish man-center ideology, establishing a notion to balance the co-existence between nature and man, man and society, as well as man and technology culture.