Ecophilosophy and the environment

Abstract

The general problem concerning the moral and existential issues that arise in the present state of man’s relation to nature is becoming an separate philosophical subdiscipline called ecophilosophy. Its object is the mutual relationship and interaction between man and nature considered from the point of view of their essence, mode of existing, knowing and valuing, moral qualification and the possibility of predicting and regulating them out of concern for the existence and good of man and the biosphere. Through it one attempts to understand the relation to nature in the context of the social establishment of the anthroposphere. Since it is practical and ecological, ecophilosophy postulates efforts directed to wisdom understood as the search for knowledge that will allow us to live better and more fully. It intends to be an art of living well – according to some, of surviving. Therefore, it should not be reduced to knowledge about the environment and its protection, or to knowledge about the human and social aspects of protecting and shaping the environment.