Ecosophy

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Ecosophy, and ecophilosophy, are neologisms formed by contracting the phrase ecological philosophy. Ecosophy refers to philosophies which have a predominant ecocentric or biocentric perspective such as ecofeminism, social ecology, and deep ecology. Meaning "ecological wisdom," the term was coined by Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer, Arne Naess.

1 Naess's definition of ecosophy
2 Félix Guattari
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

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Naess's definition of ecosophy

While a professor at University of Oslo in 1973, Arne Naess, introduced the terms "deep ecology movement" and "ecosophy" into environmental literature. Naess based his article on a talk he gave in Bucharest 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 defined ecosophy in the following way:

By an ecosophy I mean a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. A philosophy as a kind of sofia (or) wisdom, is openly normative, it contains both norms, rules, postulates, value priority announcements and hypotheses concerning the state of affairs in our universe. Wisdom is policy wisdom, prescription, not only scientific description and prediction. The details of an ecosophy will show many variations due to significant differences concerning not only the ‘facts’ of pollution, resources, population, etc. but also value priorities. (A. Drengson and Y. Inoue, 1995, page 8).

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Félix Guattari

Ecosophy also refers to a field of practice introduced by psychoanalyst and militant Félix Guattari in 1992 as a response to perceived shortcomings in the science of ecology.

Guattari holds that ecology generally obscures the complexity of the relationship between humans and their environment; he envisions ecosophy as a new field with a more holistic approach to such study. In this conception, he considers ecosophy as a science of ecosystems, of which he claims there are mental ecosystems, environmental ecosystems, and social ecosystems; that is, human subjectivity, the environment, and social relations, all of which are intimately interconnected. Guattari writes:

"Without modifications to the social and material environment, there can be no change in mentalities. Here, we are in the presence of a circle that leads me to postulate the necessity of founding an "ecosophy" that would link environmental ecology to social ecology and to mental ecology." (Guattari)

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References

Drengson, A. and Y. Inoue, eds. 1995. The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology. Berkeley: North Atlantic Publishers.
Guattari, F. 2000. The Three Ecologies. Trans. Ian Pindar & Paul Sutton, London & New Brunwick, NJ: The Athlone Press.

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