Ecosophy or ecophilosophy (a portmanteau of ecological philosophy) is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. The term was coined by the French
post-structuralist philosopher
Félix Guattari
Pierre-Félix Guattari ( ; ; 30 March 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and created ecosophy ...
and the Norwegian philosopher
Arne Næss, father of
deep ecology
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and argues that modern human societies should be restructured in accordance with such idea ...
.
Félix Guattari
Ecosophy also refers to a field of practice introduced by
psychoanalyst
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
,
poststructuralist philosopher, and political activist
Félix Guattari
Pierre-Félix Guattari ( ; ; 30 March 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and created ecosophy ...
. In part Guattari's use of the term demarcates a necessity for the proponents of social liberation, whose struggles in the 20th century were dominated by the paradigm of social revolution, to embed their arguments within an ecological framework which understands the interconnections of social and environmental spheres.
Guattari holds that traditional environmentalist perspectives obscure the complexity of the relationship between humans and their natural environment through their maintenance of the dualistic separation of human (cultural) and nonhuman (natural) systems; he envisions ecosophy as a new field with a
monistic and pluralistic approach to such study. Ecology in the Guattarian sense, then, is a study of complex phenomena, including human subjectivity, the environment, and social relations, all of which are intimately interconnected. Despite this emphasis on interconnection, throughout his individual writings and more famous collaborations with
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...
, Guattari has resisted calls for holism, preferring to emphasize heterogeneity and difference, synthesizing assemblages and
multiplicities in order to trace
rhizomatic structures rather than creating unified and holistic structures.
Guattari's concept of the three interacting and interdependent ecologies of mind, society, and environment stems from the outline of the three ecologies presented in ''
Steps to an Ecology of Mind'', a collection of writings by
cyberneticist
Gregory Bateson.
Næss's definition
Næss defined ecosophy in the following way:
While a professor at the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...
in 1972, Arne Næss, introduced the terms "
deep ecology
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and argues that modern human societies should be restructured in accordance with such idea ...
movement" and "ecosophy" into environmental literature. Næss based his article on a talk he gave in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
in 1972 at the Third World Future Research Conference. As Drengson notes in ''Ecophilosophy, Ecosophy and the Deep Ecology Movement: An Overview'', "In his talk, Næss discussed the longer-range background of the ecology movement and its connection with respect for Nature and the inherent worth of other beings." Næss's view of humans as an integral part of a "total-field image" of Nature contrasts with the alternative construction of ecosophy outlined by Guattari.
The term ecological
wisdom
Wisdom, also known as sapience, is the ability to apply knowledge, experience, and good judgment to navigate life’s complexities. It is often associated with insight, discernment, and ethics in decision-making. Throughout history, wisdom ha ...
, synonymous with ecosophy, was introduced by Næss in 1973. The concept has become one of the foundations of the
deep ecology
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and argues that modern human societies should be restructured in accordance with such idea ...
movement. All expressions of values by
Green Parties list ecological wisdom as a key value—it was one of the original
Four Pillars of the Green Party and is often considered the most basic value of these parties. It is also often associated with
indigenous religion
Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
and
cultural
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
practices.
In its political context, it is necessarily not as easily defined as
ecological health
Ecological health is a term that has been used in relation to both human health and the condition of the environment.
* In medicine, ecological health has been used to refer to multiple chemical sensitivity, which results from exposure to synthet ...
or scientific
ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
concepts.
See also
*
Ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
*
Environmental philosophy
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
*
Global Greens Charter
*
Green syndicalism
*
Silvilization
*
Simple living
Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, and spending less money. In addition t ...
*
Spiritual ecology
*
Sustainable living
Sustainable living describes a lifestyle (sociology), lifestyle that attempts to reduce the use of Earth's natural resources by an individual or society. Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint (including their carbo ...
*
Yin and yang
Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...
Notes
References
*Drengson, A. and Y. Inoue, eds. (1995) ''The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology''. Berkeley: North Atlantic Publishers.
*Guattari, Félix: »Pour une refondation des pratiques sociales«. In: Le Monde Diplomatique (Oct. 1992): 26-7.
*Guattari, Félix: »Remaking Social Practices«. In: Genosko, Gary (Hg.) (1996): The Guattari Reader. Oxford, Blackwell, S. 262-273.
*Maybury-Lewis, David. (1992) "On the Importance of Being Tribal: Tribal Wisdom." Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World. Binimun Productions Ltd.
*Næss, Arne. (1973) ''The Shallow and the Deep Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary". Inquiry, 16:95-100
*Drengson A. & B. Devall (2008) (Eds) ''The Ecology of Wisdom. Writings by Arne Naess''. Berkeley: Counterpoint
*Levesque, Simon (2016) Two versions of ecosophy: Arne Næss, Félix Guattari, and their connection with semiotics. ''Sign Systems Studies'' 44(4): 511-541. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2016.44.4.03
External links
Ecophilosophy, Ecosophy and the Deep Ecology Movement: An Overview by Alan DrengsonEcospherics.net. Accessed 2005-08-14.
The Trumpeter A Journal of Ecosophy.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecological Wisdom
Ecology
Postmodern theory
Environmental philosophy
Environmentalism
Arne Næss