Ecophilosophies: the formation of contemporary ecological ideas and attitudes

Abstract

In an attempt to outline the panorama of the principal ideas and debates currently appearing on the subject of the so-called «ecological crisis», this article recommends three levels of approach, based on the degree of importance that each author places on the existence of physical, social and psychological limits, identified here as conditioners of the relation between man and his surroundings.

On the basis of this definition, two essentially different lines of thought tend to recur in the analysis of the origin and history of these ideas (which include both new and resurgent aspects):

- The line based on the assumption of physical and, in some cases, social limits. Its objective is the rational management of environmental resources as a means of maintaining present life-styles, and based on an instrumental vision of nature and man.

-A second line which attempts to demonstrate the close interrelation among the tree levels indicated, with special emphasis on the governing role of the psychological limits. This gives rise to questions and alternative ideas concerning the block of «necessities» and beliefs which apparently make up this way of life.

This second, more humanist viewpoint is under intense debate in English-speaking circles, albeit among a minority group. Taken to its limit, it places in doubt the very foundations of the scientific perception of the world and the scale of values there by generated, including present economic and technological models.

The article concludes with a resumé of the alternative premises and values implied in this «ecological humanism», and which, within the sphere of geographical thought, find expression in the most recent currents, and particulary in humanistic geography.