Ecosophy, and
ecophilosophy, are
neologismA neologism ; from Greek νές is a newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event...
s formed by contracting the phrase
ecological philosophy.
Confusion as to the meaning (suggesting that such a meaning should be singular and exact) of ecosophy is primarily the consequence of it being used to designate different and often contradictory (though conceptually related) concepts by the Norwegian father of
Deep EcologyDeep ecology is a somewhat recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers humankind as an integral part of its environment. The philosophy emphasizes the equal value of human and non-human life as well as the importance of the ecosystem and natural processes...
,
Arne NæssArne Dekke Eide Næss was the founder of deep ecology. He is widely regarded as the foremost Norwegian philosopher of the 20th century. He was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo. Næss, himself an avid mountaineer, was also known as the uncle of mountaineer...
, and French post-Marxist philosopher and psychoanalyst
Felix GuattariPierre-Félix Guattari was a French militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy...
.
While a professor at
University of OsloThe University of Oslo is the oldest, largest and most prestigious university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.It was founded in 1811 as The Royal Frederick University...
in 1972, Arne Naess, introduced the terms "
deep ecologyDeep ecology is a somewhat recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers humankind as an integral part of its environment. The philosophy emphasizes the equal value of human and non-human life as well as the importance of the ecosystem and natural processes...
movement" and "ecosophy" into environmental literature.
Ecosophy, and
ecophilosophy, are
neologismA neologism ; from Greek νές is a newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event...
s formed by contracting the phrase
ecological philosophy.
Confusion as to the meaning (suggesting that such a meaning should be singular and exact) of ecosophy is primarily the consequence of it being used to designate different and often contradictory (though conceptually related) concepts by the Norwegian father of
Deep EcologyDeep ecology is a somewhat recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers humankind as an integral part of its environment. The philosophy emphasizes the equal value of human and non-human life as well as the importance of the ecosystem and natural processes...
,
Arne NæssArne Dekke Eide Næss was the founder of deep ecology. He is widely regarded as the foremost Norwegian philosopher of the 20th century. He was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo. Næss, himself an avid mountaineer, was also known as the uncle of mountaineer...
, and French post-Marxist philosopher and psychoanalyst
Felix GuattariPierre-Félix Guattari was a French militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy...
.
Naess's definition of ecosophy
While a professor at
University of OsloThe University of Oslo is the oldest, largest and most prestigious university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.It was founded in 1811 as The Royal Frederick University...
in 1972, Arne Naess, introduced the terms "
deep ecologyDeep ecology is a somewhat recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers humankind as an integral part of its environment. The philosophy emphasizes the equal value of human and non-human life as well as the importance of the ecosystem and natural processes...
movement" and "ecosophy" into environmental literature. Naess based his article on a talk he gave in
BucharestBucharest is the capital city, industrial and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River....
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 Naess discussed the longer-range background of the ecology movement and its connection with respect for Nature and the inherent worth of other beings." Naess's construction of a Nature which sits outside the human sphere of culture, and furthermore his preference for 'natural' values over cultural (particularly Western) values demarcates him as a dualist - which sharply contrasts with the alternative construction of ecosophy outlined by Guattari.
Naess defined ecosophy in the following way:
Félix Guattari
Ecosophy also refers to a field of practice introduced by psychoanalyst, poststructuralist philosopher and political activist
Félix GuattariPierre-Félix Guattari was a French militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy...
. In part Guattari's use of the term demarcates what he observes as the necessity for the proponents of social liberation whose struggles in the twentieth century were dominated by the paradigm of social revolution and
MarxismMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
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 its 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 DeleuzeGilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher of the late 20th century. From the early 1960s until his death, Deleuze wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art...
Guattari has resisted calls for holism, preferring to emphasise heterogeneity and difference, synthesising assemblages and multiplicities in order to trace
rhizomaticRhizome is a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project...
structures rather than creating unified and, holisitic 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 cyberneticist
Gregory BatesonGregory Bateson was a British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. Some of his most noted writings are to be found in his books, Steps to an Ecology of Mind and Mind and Nature...
's 1972 text
Steps to an Ecology of MindSteps to an Ecology of Mind is a collection of Gregory Bateson's short works over his long and varied career. Subject matter includes essays on anthropology, cybernetics, psychiatry and epistemology. It was originally published by Chandler Publishing Company in 1972...
.
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