Philosophical Reflection On The Relationship Between Man And Nature

Fundamentally speaking, the whole history of human society, is a process that man adjusts to the nature constantly (including nature's self-transformation) Taking a panoramic view of human history, the relationship between man and nature, broadly experienced three stages including"passive adaptation","conquest and expansion"and"imbalance and Reflection". Due to different historical periods, there are marked differences on social development in different nations, so the understanding to nature formed on the basis of the different philosophy and values. Chinese traditional culture originates in the long-term agricultural civilization, which is built on the basis of human experience of the entire world. This experience has gone beyond the logic confrontation between the subject and the object. Therefore, in Chinese philosophy, Man and nature are unified, which is the so-called"unity between Man and Nature"theory. The remarkable characteristic of western culture is a far-reaching impact to people's viewpoints of values in the past hundreds of years with the development of science and industrial civilization.Thus, in modern western philosophy, human-centrism that emphasizes the confrontation between the subject and object rules people's thinking of a long period of time. It highlights that the subject takes precedence, and advocates"everything for the people's interests and values as the center","human is the master of nature, while nature is no more than a tool." With the worsening of environment pollution and ecological problems, the causes have attributed to human-centrism, while the non-human- centrism emerged. It opposed to the ideas that human being is the only judgment on interests and values, advocate equality and interest of the entire ecological community in order to arouse the people to respect and care for nature. Today, human should firstly bear the blame for the global ecological crisis. The treatment to the nature and its negative consequences primarily result from the aimlessness of human development itself which caused by the misleading concept of human being self-values. In order to get rid of environmental pollution, mankind should reestablish the harmony of human-nature and follow a sustainable development path. In view of china's contradictory of keeping environment and economic development, on the one hand we need to reverse the long-term struggle philosophy of "conquer nature"; on the other hand we should adhere to the scientific concept of development and fulfill harmonious development of man and nature.