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 | |  Deep Ecology | |
 Deep Ecology
The deep ecology movement is the ecology movement which questions deeper. ..The adjective 'deep' stresses that we ask why and how, where others do not. (Arne Naess, who coined the phrase in 1972)Deep Ecology is rooted in a perception of reality that goes beyond the scientific framework to an intuitive awareness of the oneness of all life, the interdependence of its multiple manifestations and its cycles of change and transformation. When the concept of the human spirit is understood in this sense, its mode of consciousness in which the individual feels connected to the cosmos as a whole, it becomes clear that ecological awareness is truly spiritual. Indeed the idea of the individual being linked to the cosmos is expressed in the Latin root of the word religion, religare (to bind strongly), as well as the Sanskrit yoga, which means union. (Fritjof Capra) (Fox, 1995)Deep Ecology is concerned with the Metaphysics of Nature, and of the relation of the Self to Nature. It sets up ecology as a model for the basic metaphysical structure of the world, seeing the identities of all things- whether at the level of elementary particles, organisms, or galaxies- as logically interconnected: all things are constituted by their relations with other things ..
Applying this principle of interconnectedness to the human case, it becomes apparent that the individual denoted by “I” is not constituted merely by a body or a personal ego or consciousness. I am, of course, partially constituted by these immediate physical and mental structures, but I am also constituted by my ecological relations with the elements of my environment- relations in the image of which the structures of my body and consciousness are built. I am a holistic element of my native ecosystem, and of any wider wholes under which that ecosystem is subsumed ..
From the point of view of deep ecology, what is wrong with our culture is that it offers us an inaccurate conception of the self. It depicts the personal self as existing in competition with and in opposition to nature [We fail to realise that] if we destroy our environment, we are destroying what is in fact our larger self. (Freya Matthew) (Fox, 1995)The main hope for changing humanity’s present course may lie … in the development of a world view drawn partly from ecological principles - in the so-called deep ecology movement. The term ‘deep ecology’ was coined in 1972 by Arne Naess to contrast with the fight against pollution and resource depletion in developed countries, which he called ‘shallow ecology’. The deep ecology movement thinks today’s human thought patterns and social organisation are inadequate to deal with the population-resource-environmental crisis – a view with which I tend to agree. I am convinced that such a quasi-religious movement, one concerned with the need to change the values that now govern much of human activity, is essential to the persistence of our civilisation. (Paul Ehrlich, p41)... when I say that the fate of the sea turtle or the tiger or the gibbon is mine, I mean it. All that is my universe is not merely mine; it is me. And I shall defend myself. I shall defend myself not only against overt aggression but also against gratuitous insult ... (John Livingston)Every living being is connected intimately, and from this intimacy follows the capacity of identification and as its natural consequences, practice of non-violence .. Now is the time to share with all life on our maltreated earth through the deepening identification with life forms and the greater units, the ecosystems, and Gaia, the fabulous, old planet of ours. (Arne Naess).. as Bertrand Russell argues in relation to Spinoza's conception of conatus, “self-preservation alters its character when we realise that what is real and positive in us is what unites us to the whole, and not what preserves the appearance of separateness”- and, of course, in Spinoza's metaphysics, we are united to the whole since there is ultimately only one substance; reality is a unity, which we may refer to as God or Nature.
When we realise we that we are united to the whole alienation drops away and we identify more widely with the world of which we are apart. Another way of expressing this is to say that we realise a larger sense of self; our own unfolding becomes more and more bound up with the unfolding of other entities (or, in Spinoza's terminology, with the unfolding of the other modes of the single substance of which we are ourselves a mode.) (Fox, 1995)For Spinoza, the highest end to which humans could aspire consists in “knowledge of the union existing between the mind and the whole of nature.” Thus, humans (one particular kind of mode) realise the truth of existence, or attain self-realisation, when they realise that they arise out of and so are united with “the whole of nature,” the single substance (or energy) that constitutes all modes of existence. (Fox, 1995)As we discover our ecological self we will joyfully defend and interact with that with which we identify; and instead of imposing environmental ethics on people, we will naturally respect, love, honor and protect that which is our self ..
Extending awareness and receptivity with other animals and mountains and rivers encourages identification and engenders respect for and solidarity with the field of identification. This does not mean there will never be conflicts between the vital material needs of different people or between some humans and some other animals in specific situations, but it does mean that a basis for “good actions” or “right livelihood” is not based alone on abstract moralism, self-denial, or sacrifice…
We need to be reminded of our moral duties occasionally, but we change our behavior more simply with richer ends through encouragement. (Bill Devall)(Fox, 1995)What identifies us in terms of certain cultural patterns does not exhaust the richer possibilities that each of us contains. The conception we have of ourselves as social and human beings comes to constitute an ego self, a self image, which is narrowly boundaried and defined, and which is ultimately based on a rigid array of dualisms that have their basis in a subject/object dichotomy and a human/nature antagonism..
What deep ecology directs us toward, then, is neither an environmental axiology or theory of environmental ethics nor a minor reform of existing practices. It directs us to develop our own sense of self until it becomes Self, that is, until we realise through deepening ecological sensibilities that each of us forms a union with the natural world, and that protection of the natural world is protection of ourselves. (Alan Drengson)(Fox, 1995)In the light of the foregoing analysis, we can say that to determine what kinds of behavior are morally appropriate, we must know what we ourselves are and other beings are. In other words, ontology precedes ethics .. Deep ecologists claim that before knowing what we ought to do, we must understand who we really are. (Michael Zimmerman)(Fox, 1995)Indeed, I consider that this shift [to an emphasis on our “capacity to identify with the larger collective of all beings” ] is essential to our survival at this point in history precisely because it can serve in lieu of morality and because moralising is ineffective. Sermons seldom hinder us from pursuing our self-interest, so we need to be a little more enlightened about what our self-interest is. It would not occur to me, for example, to exhort you to refrain from cutting off your leg. That wouldn’t occur to me or to you, because your leg is part of you. Well, so are the trees in the Amazon Basin; they are our external lungs. We are just beginning to wake up to that. We are gradually discovering that we are our world. (Joanna Macy)(Fox, 1995)The ecosophical outlook is developed through an identification so deep that one’s own self is no longer adequately delimited by the personal ego or the organism. One experiences oneself to be a genuine part of all life .. We are not outside the rest of nature and therefore cannot do with is as we please without changing ourselves ...
Paleontology reveals .. that the development of life on earth is an integrated process, despite the steadily increasing diversity and complexity. The nature and limitation of this unity can be debated. Still, this is something basic. “Life is fundamentally one.” (Arne Naess)(Fox, 1995)The deep ecologists analysis of the self is such that they consider that if one has a deep understanding of the way things are (i.e. if one emphatically incorporates the fact that we and all other entities are aspects of a single unfolding reality) then one will (as opposed to should) naturally be inclined to care for the unfolding of the world in all its aspects. For transpersonal ecologists, this kind of response to the fact of our interconnectedness with the world represents a natural (i.e. spontaneous) unfolding of human potentialities. Indeed, given a deep enough understanding of this fact, we can scarcely refrain from responding in this way. This is why one finds transpersonal ecologists making statements to the effect that they are more concerned with ontology or cosmology (i.e. with the general question of the way the world is) than with ethics. (Fox, 1995).. although the positive aspects of personally based identification are praiseworthy and fundamental to human development, the negative aspects that go with exclusive or primary reliance upon this from of identification (my self first, my family and friends next, and so on) are costing us the earth. They underlie the egoisms, attachments, and exclusivity that find personal, corporate, national and international expression in possessiveness, greed, exploitation, war and ecocide. As an antidote to these poisons, transpersonal ecologists emphasise the importance of setting personally based identification firmly within the context of ontologically and cosmically based identification - forms of identification that lead to impartial identification with all entities. In terms of politics and lifestyles, the latter, transpersonal forms of identification are expressed in actions that tend to promote symbiosis. Actions of this kind include not only actions that consist in “treading lightly” upon the earth (i.e. lifestyles of voluntary simplicity) but also actions that respectfully but resolutely attempt to alter the views and behavior of those who persist in the delusion that self-realisation lies in the direction of dominating the earth and the myriad entities with which we coexist. That the self advances and confirms the myriad things is called delusion. That the myriad things advance and confirm the self is enlightenment. (Fox, 1995) | |
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