Analysis Of Bergson’s Ecological Ethics Thoughts

The first chapter of this paper tries to find the appropriate position of Bergson’s thought in kinds of contemporary ecological theories,discriminating Bergson’s philosophy from the perspective of ecological ethics.From the point of view of specific ecological ethics,Bergson’s view is similar to Holmes Rolston’s theory of natural value,both of which belong to the ecocentric theory.Compared with animal rights theory and biocentric theory,which focus on specific animal individuals or some endangered species that are close to extinction,Bergson’s focus on life starts from the evolution process of all life on a macro level,which is more similar to Rolston’s focus on the whole ecosystem.From the perspective of the whole macro universe,Bergson believed that all life naturally has the impulse to survive and evolve,thus recognizing and respecting the right to survive of all life.However,he still believed that among all the forms of life on Earth,human is the object that reflect this impulse of life most and best,and there are no the other lives can directly reflect the creativity and evolutionary power of life more than human.The second chapter focuses on the texts which Bergson’s ecological ethics embodied in Creative Evolution and Two Sources of Morality and Religion.In fact,Creative Evolution is the result of the concept "duration" which created by Bergson from a psychological fact of the spiritual world moving to the existence of the real world.In the process of biological evolution,it shows how the momentum of life,as an original force of the universe,contributes to the generation and development of species.Two Sources of Morality and Religion is Bergson’s attempt to apply the concept of "life impulse" to explain morality and religion at the human social level.It is mainly made of Bergson’s direct moral requirements for human society,covering a spirit of fraternity including the whole ecosystem.For Bergson,the whole universe is an organic organism.As the creature that best embodies the creativity of the whole universe,the highest moral standard that human beings can develop is to understand the total life of the universe in an indescribable and almost mystical way,and thus to generate the love for all mankind,the whole species,the whole world and even the whole universe.There are countless meanings and various reasons to protect nature and to maintain a good ecological environment,and Bergson gave one of the most emotional ones,which is also the most difficult to express and the most demanding to human-beings: it not only requires people to give up easy interests and pursue conscience and honor to a certain extent,but also requires the awakening of life consciousness in the soul and challenges to the common values.The third chapter reflects on the ecological ethics contained in Bergson’s philosophy,compares it with other important ecological theories,and points out that there is excessive idealism and extreme mysticism in Bergson’s ecological ethics.Secondly,this paper briefly discusses the enlightenment of Bergson’s ecological ethics to the contemporary era and its influence on postmodernism.In a word,Bergson’s ecological ethics concept can help contemporary people to reshape their spiritual support to a certain extent,broaden their horizons,and let people know the world again.