Deep Ecology

Deep ecology is primarily an environmental philosophy—or “ecosophy” as some call it—which holds that there is a pressing need for humans to radically change their relationship to nature and to recognize that nature has an inherent value and is not to be taken as valuable solely for its usefulness and instrumentality to humans. Deep ecology also offers a new definition of the self that differs from traditional notions, and it designates a social movement that sometimes has religious and mystical undertones. This philosophy, taken together with a number of other competing schools of thought and environmental practices such as the science of ecology, conservationism, and protectionism, among others, comprises the general idea of environmentalism. But taken as an ecosophy, deep ecology distinguishes itself by making broader and more basic philosophical claims about matters in metaphysics, epistemology, and social justice.

The practitioners of deep ecology often draw a contrast between their own position and what they refer to as “shallow ecology.” This designation is employed since they hold that the movement of ecology reflects a hidden bias. At first glance, it seems to be concerned with topics such as pollution, resource depletion, and overpopulation, but on examination [Page 558]one will find (according to the deep ecologists) that these concerns are real only to the extent that these topics have a negative effect on the ecology of an area and have the result of disrupting human interests. From the perspective of the deep ecologists, then, the main concern of environmentalists is not the environment, but how humans will be affected. Ecology or environmentalism is shallow in this view, since its focus is narrow on humanity rather than on the whole of the biosphere, and its bias is a form of anthropocentrism that needs to be rectified by replacing this attitude with that of ecocentrism or biocentrism where the biosphere becomes the focus of concern instead of humans.

What the deep ecologists would rather see is the prevalence of an attitude or belief system that moves away from anthropocentrism toward a more inclusive philosophy where respect for nature and the role of humans in nature are central. Anthropocentrism is typified as a human-centered attitude that sees humans as the source of all values and disproportionately tips the relationship between humans and nature toward benefiting humans. It contains an instrumentalist view of nature and a view of man as the conqueror of nature, subduing it into submission and standing in domination of it. Anthropocentrism gives credence to practices where man only values nature for its uses, and then goes on to abuse nature to the point of environmental degradation. Such a relationship is descried by deep ecologists as being unproductive and destructive and standing in need of change.