Class #18: Murray Bookchin, “What is Social Ecology?”

Bookchin believes that all ecological problems are deeply rooted in social problems, and the real battleground on which the ecological future of the planet will be decided is clearly a social one. We cannot ignore the impact that a hierarchal class society has on the natural world. Economic growth, gender oppressions, corporate, state, and bureaucratic interests, are more capable of shaping the future of the natural world. Human beings are rooted in their biological evolutionary history , which we consider “first nature”, but they also produce a characteristic human social nature of their own , that we may consider “social nature”. If we regard nature as the history of nature, as an evolutionary process, which is on one degree or a lower degree, we dishonor this process by simply viewing it as a processual way. The human and non human can be seen as aspects of an evolutionary continuum, and both the non human and human can be seen at the same evolutionary plane, without advancing claims that one is is either superior to or made for the other. To truly know and be bale to understand and give meaning to the social issues so arranged, we must care to understand how each idea derived from others, as is part of an overall development. Processual thinking is needed to deal with processual realities so that we can gain some sense of direction in dealing with our ecological problems. Social ecology calls upon us to see that the nature and society are interlinked by evolution into one nature that consists of two differentiations. Second nature is the way in which human beings are flexible and highly intelligent primates. It is not so much that human beings in principle behave differently from animals and are more inherently more problematical in a strictly ecological sense , but the social development by which they grade out of their biological development often becomes more problematical for themselves and non human life.
             I agree that it is important to take account of the social issues we have and connect them to how human beings undermine the ecological issues our planet is facing. Our laws don’t protect our planet on the same degree that they focus on enhancing the economy. Hurting the environment and masking it for profit, has been a major issue that ties into major social issues such as child labor and unfair labor conditions in many countries.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kenneth Goodpaster: On Moral Consideration

Kenneth Goodpaster leads us through many principles and perceptions of different philosophers to tackle the overall question, “ to whom principles of morality apply?” In order to begin to develop an answer for this question, we must first understand the framework of moral consideration, and then proceed to the application of this framework. Goodpaster presents to us distinct viewpoints on the sorts of entities that can and should receive moral consideration. He believes that neither rationality nor the capacity to experience pleasure and pain are necessary conditions on moral considerability. Instead, the simple act of being alive, for Goodpaster is a plausible criterion in terms of moral consideration. He believes that the universe of moral consideration is more complex that just individual persons and their joys ad sorrows. Goodpaster begins to draw the distinction between rights and considerability. He believes that the notion of rights are more specific that those of considerbaili...
Read more

Class #23: Heather Davis and Zoe Todd, “On the Importance of a Date, or Decolonizing the Anthropocene”

Heather Davis and Zoe Todd point out the failure of the Anthropocene, as a name to be assigned to today’s epoch. The start date that is being chosen for the Anthropocene is mid twentieth century 1964.  They are drawing connections saying that the Anthropocene, is explicitly linked to the beginnings of colonization. By linking the Anthropocene with colonization, it draws attention to the violence at its core, and calls for the consideration of Indigenous philosophies and processes of Indigenous self-governance as a necessary political corrective, alongside the self-determination of other communities and societies violently impacted by the white supremacist, colonial, and capitalist logics instantiated in the origins of the Anthropocene. They feel that the Anthropocene betrays itself in its name: in its reassertion of universality, it implicitly aligns itself with the colonial era. Heather Davis and Zoe Todd propose a 1610 start date to coincide with colonization p...
Read more

Rolston, Duties to Ecosystems

Holmes Rolston talks about the separate duties that humans and organisms owe to the ecosystem through distinct lenses. He states that the apparent harmony in ecosystems is superficial. Like business, politics, and sports ecosystems thrive on competition. He talks about how environmental necessity involves conflict, selection pressure, niche fittedness, environmental support, etc. These section pressures will routinely drive adaptation and counter adaptation; therefor the ecosystem is forcing a check on competitions by forced cooperation.   He believes us humans need to see that, an ecosystem has no centeredness at all, and we ought to simply value organisms for their evolutionary journey and purpose. The members of the biotic community have no shared needs; each species is individualistic in the sense that they are focused on the needs of their own survival.   He further explains how an ecosystem is far from being a satisfactory community, instead it is rath...
Read more