Genealogy of Ecophilosophies
Michael S. Pak
College of Cultural Science, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), Daejeon, Rep. of Korea, 305-701 (Korea, Republic of)
Abstract
Environmentalism is not a recent movement, but one which dates from at least since the nineteenth century, and which has been subject to periods of contraction as well as growth. Moreover, the philosophical impulses underlying this movement have deep historical roots (and numerous antecedents) in the Western tradition. Broadly speaking, there have been two different traditions – schools – of environmental thought. The better known of these schools is one which the article identifies as the Arcadian, and which essentially represents a more up-to-date expression of the discontent with civilization and the desire for a return to the state of nature which have been characteristic of various Western philosophical traditions since antiquity. The other school, identified in this article as Utilitarian, which emphasizes the beneficial and less wasteful uses of nature with the help of science and technology, is now enjoying resurgence, but it also has deeper and broader historical and cultural roots than often suspected, as recent research has begun to show. Understanding the genealogy of these different types of ecophilosophies, in turn, helps us better discern, with the benefit of hindsight, their potential pitfalls as well as their likely contributions, and thus could lead to better informed philosophical discussions on environmental issues.
Keywords:
anthropocentric, conservation, ecocentric, ecophilosophy, environmentalism, sustainable developmentReferences
CARSON R., Silent Spring, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1962.
Google Scholar
CRONON W., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, Norton, New York 1995.
Google Scholar
DYSON F., 2008, The Question of Global Warming, in: New York Review of Books, vol. 55 no. 10.
Google Scholar
FLEMING D., 1972, Roots of the New Conservation Movement, in: Perspectives in American History, vol. 6, p. 7-91.
Google Scholar
GUHA R., Environmentalism: A Global History, Longman, New York 2000.
Google Scholar
LEOPOLD A., 1933, The Conservation Ethic, in: Journal of Forestry, vol. 31 no. 6, p. 634-643.
Google Scholar
LÉVI-STRAUSS C., La Pensée Sauvage, Plon, Paris 1962.
Google Scholar
LOVEJOY A., BOAS G., Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity, Johns Hopkins, Baltmore and London, 1935.
Google Scholar
MARSH G., Man and Nature, Charles Scribner, New York 1964.
Google Scholar
MERCHANT C. Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture, Routledge, New York 2004.
Google Scholar
MINTEER B., The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America, MIT, Cambridge 2006.
Google Scholar
PAK M., 2011, Environmentalism Then and Now: From Fears to Opportunities, 1970-2010, in: Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 45 no. 1, p. 5-9.
Google Scholar
PAWLOWSKI A., Sustainable Development as a Civilizational Revolution: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Challenges of the 21st Century, CRC Press 2011.
Google Scholar
RADKAU J., Nature and Power: A Global History of the Environment, Cambridge UP 2008.
Google Scholar
STOLL M., 2011, ‘Sagacious’ Bernard Palissy: Pinchot, Marsh, and the Connecticut Origins of American Conservation,, in: Environmental History vol. 16 no. 1, p. 4-37.
Google Scholar
THOMAS K., Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800, Penguin, London 1983.
Google Scholar
WHITE L., 1967, The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, in: Science, vol. 55, p. 1203-7, reprinted in: Western Man and Environmental Ethics: Attitudes Toward Nature and Technology, ed. Barbour I., Addison-Wesley, Reading 1973, p. 18-30.
Google Scholar
WILSON E., 2000, Natural Selections, in: The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work, ed. Arana M., Public Affairs, New York 2003.
Google Scholar
WILSON E., In Search of Nature, Island Press, Washington, D.C. 1996.
Google Scholar
Authors
Michael S. PakCollege of Cultural Science, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), Daejeon, Rep. of Korea, 305-701 Korea, Republic of
Statistics
Abstract views: 10PDF downloads: 2
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
