[PREV - FREEWILL]    [TOP]

DEEP_ECOLOGY

                                             September 13-16, 2007

An oddity of the 80s and 90s was the
rise of the "deep ecology" movement,
which as I understand it takes the
whole of nature as the fundamental        EMPIRICAL_MORALITY
moral entity, with humanity as just
one species among many.


The phrase "Deep Ecology" was       [ref]
apparently invented by Arne
Naess in a 1973 essay ("The
Shallow and the Deep ..."):          (Dave Foreman also mentions:
                                     George Sessions, Bill Devall)


I see he talks about
his "Deep Ecology" in               Murray Bookchin seems to like
comparison to the plain             the phrase "social ecology".
old variety that he
calls "Shallow":

     "I. The Shallow Ecology
     movement: "Fight against
     pollution and resource
     depletion.  Central
     objective: the health
     and affluence of people            (This is particularly
     in the developed countries."       funny, because
                                        elsewhere Naess
           And here, right at           recommends against
           the outset, he leads         the use of "straw
           off with a distortion        man" arguments, and
           (is it supposed to be        calls for neutral
           sarcasm?)... myself I        statements of the
           don't think I've met         subject of debate.)
           an ecologist so
           "shallow" they were
           uninterested in                 Another irony: One of the
           health and happiness            problems with the folks who
           of people everywhere...         went off the "deep" end is
                                           that they have a tendency to
                                           shrug off third world famines
                                           (mother nature strikes back).


     "II. The Deep Ecology movement:
     "1. Rejection of the
     man-in-environment image in favor
     the relational, total-field
     image. Organisms as knots in the            Tangled up in the
     biospherical net or field of                network metaphor, as
     intrinsic relations.  [...]"                are all of us nodes.



     "2. Biospherical
     egalitarianism-in
     principle. The "in             And as is often the case,
     principle" clause is           the places where we allow
     inserted because any           exceptions from the
     realistic praxis               principles are where the
     necessitates some              actual principles are to
     killing, exploitation,         be found.
     and suppression."

     "The ecological field-worker
     acquires a deep-seated respect,      I think I see where this
     or even veneration, for ways         is going: it's okay to
     and forms of life."                  slaughter the chickens as
                                          long as we've got the
                                          right attitude.  Does this
                                          hold for slaughtering
                                          human beings as well?



     "To the ecological field-worker,
     the equal right to live and
     blossom is an intuitively clear
     and obvious value axiom. Its
     restriction to humans is an                   So, now we're
     anthropocentrism with detrimental             justifying this
     effects upon the life quality of              egalitarianism
     humans themselves. [...]"                     in terms of it's
                                                   benefit to our
                                                   own species?

                                                        And this differs
                                                        from those "shallow"
                                                        types, how?

                                                            CONSEQUENCES
     "Ecological egalitarianism implies the
     reinterpretation of the future-research
     variable, "level of crowding," so that
     general mammalian crowding and loss of
     life-equality is taken seriously, not only
     human crowding.  (Research on the high
     requirements of free space of certain
     mammals has, incidentally, suggested that
     theorists of human urbanism have largely
     underestimated human life-space                    And everyone
     requirements. Behavioral crowding symptoms,        is so *polite*
     such as neuroses, aggressiveness, loss of          out in the 'burbs.
     traditions, are largely the same among             They do such a
     mammals.)"                                         fine job of
                                                        preserving
                                                        their worthy
                                                        traditions, too.
                                                        And their ecological
                                                        consciousness is
                                                        legendary.




--------
[NEXT - CONSEQUENCES]