Contemporary Reflections On Environmental Ethics

The survival and the development of human being depend on the support from ecological balance of the entire earth. Since human society came forth, human activities have been exerting their influence on the ecological environment. The industrial revolution brought unprecedented changes for the ecological environment of the whole human society, which caused a series of serious issues such as serious degradation of ecosystem, pollution of environment, exhaustion of resource and so on. In such an environment situation, the times summon us to explore ecological ethics thoughts from Chinese traditional"Unity of the Heaven and Human"and Marx's view of nature to guide our practice in modern construction so as to realize the sustainable development of human society.The paper mainly discusses the kind of thought from the following aspects: the first part, mainly analyzes basic connotation of"Unity of Heaven and Human"and Marx's view of nature. At first, explores ecological ethics thoughts which are shown among the traditional"Unity of the Heaven and Human", such as"Participation in Fostering by the Heaven and the Earth"and"Idea of which all of the world are our brothers and sisters"of Confucianism,"Imitation of Nature"and"No difference between nobleness or humbleness in the world"of Taoism,"Equality of all living creatures"of Buddhism, and gain enlightenment from them for Contemporary Society. Next, according to Marx's exposition about the relation between human and nature, search the theoretical basis which human and nature coexists harmoniously. The second part, makes comparisons between"Unity of Heaven and Human"and Marx's view of nature at following aspects: background, ontology, value. And find out beneficial thoughts which closely contact with current environment to scientifically guide the construction of harmonious society. The third part, deeply explore sources of creating environmental problems from several aspects as follows: human's value system and moral level, globalization in economy and environment in the light of ecological crisis which China faced. And raise scheme of coping with environmental crisis in view of problems which China currently exists in environment. To overcome the kind of thought which all should be centered on human's interests and values, and raise people's moral sense through education, restrain human's excessive actions of treating nature by perfecting environmental legal system, adhere to the principle of fairness, prompting people to assume a shared moral responsibility for nature. Under the direction of "Heaven and Man" thought and Marx's view of nature, foster faith of respecting for nature and respecting for life , to correctly handle the relationship between man and nature, adhere to the scientific development concept and building a socialist harmonious society, to collectively create our common home with ecological harmony, stability and beauty.