Źródła ekofilozofîi

Abstract

Already at the beginning of the 20th century there appeared a group of thinkers and researchers of culture such as: Lew Szestow, Arnold Toynbee, Oswald Spengler or existentialists who anticipated an approaching end of the civilisation. A feverish search for certainty and safety, which the existing institutions and beliefs no longer provided, began. An attem pt to build a “new ecological paradigm” started with ecophilosophers selecting from the history of human thought the issues that remained in opposition to prevailing mechanistic materialism. The "Green thread” in western philosophy was strengthened by the fascination with the religions and philosophy of the East. In such a way the components of a “new paradigm” were constituted making room for ecophilosophy to appear. A number of factors, some more than the others, played a supporting role in the origins of ecophilosophy (ecosophy) and in its reception. They include: new social movements for environment protection; reports on the condition of the world showing alarmingly bad state of ecological degradation (U Thant's report, Roman Club experts' report); changes in science – the appearance of systems theory and new physics based on holistic reasoning; the philosophy of science showing relativity of all scientific assumptions; postmodernistic criticism of great ideas of contemporary civilisation of the West (progress, accumulating wealth or efficiency as the criterium of truth); the development of ecology as a science which deals with mutual interactions between animals, plants and ecosystems or between them and their physical environment; emergence of alternative lifestyles – countercultures – defying the “insatiable culture” and fulfilling the ideas of community bonds, economic selfsufficiency, spirituality, restraint in consumption, self-realization, ecological sensitivity, equality of sexes, rejection of violence, adapting “be more instead of “have more” way, etc; reception of the Far East spirituality in the second half of the 20th century to an extent greater than ever before; dissenter opinion about contemporary technics and economy, the appearance of strong feminist movement, opposition literature resisting materialistic progress, mass culture and other alienating features of contemporary civilisation, development of studies on aboriginal peoples cultures.