Artikel

Diepte-ecologie: een filosofie voor de 21ste eeuw?

---

Abstract

Deep ecology : a philosophy for the 21st century ? - The United States especially has seen the development of a philosophically inspired movement which considers the ecological crisis as the symptom of a deeper crisis - a crisis of culture - which can only be contained by a review of our world view. In this article the author considers one special branch of this new orientation : the deep ecological movement whose historical roots go back to the radical nature preservation movement (H. Thoreau, J. Muir, A. Leopold) and the counterculture (T. Roszak). The main inspirator of the ’deep ecology’ movement is the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, who introduced the term in an article published in Inquiry in 1973, after which it became known and accepted by a broader public mainly thanks to the theoretical and propagandist work of the American philosopher George Sessions and the sociologist Bill Devall. Recently it has received its clearest presentation in a book by the young Australian philosopher Warwick Fox, who at the same time proposed changing the name into 'transpersonal ecology’. Deep ecology searches the solution for the ecological crisis in an alternative ’state of being’ which in the first place criticizes traditional Western anthropocentrism, but is likewise critical of the currently popular environmental axiology. Man has to strive for an alternative ’state of being’ in which his ’self is broadened and deepened by an ontologically or cosmologically based identification-process, so that the preservation of nature is identical with the protection of our ’selves’. This identification-process is psychologically facilitated by the new world view conveyed by modern physics and ecological science. Deep ecology also has practical implications for the political strategy of the movement and the lifestyle of its supporters. In the final chapter of the article the author considers some positive and - even more so - negative remarks which deep ecology has attracted in recent years.

How to Cite:

Jacobs, R., (1991) “Diepte-ecologie: een filosofie voor de 21ste eeuw?”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 36(4), 364–399. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95089