What Is Good & What Is Bad About the Revolution of Deep Ecology

Revolutions are necessary in order to develop human consciousness. This consciousness is the essential element for humans to perceive the environment they are experiencing. With this consciousness, humans can perceive better, and in this way, they can explore and understand the environment that they are living in. Deep Ecology is an offer of revolution and it requires people to understand their place in the hierarchy of beings. Deep Ecology contains two main principle and these principles are biocentric egalitarianism and metaphysical holism. Biocentric egalitarianism enables people not to see themselves superior to nonhuman creatures. Metaphysical holism enables people to see themselves as a part of the environment that they are living in. Both of the principles are useful to achieve a revolution since biocentric egalitarianism is a whole new understanding of human egoism and metaphysical holism is a completely new point of view to humankind. There is no doubt that if deep ecology will be taking over all human’s minds, like capitalism did, there has to be a radical revolution. So in order to be a revolution to take place, that revolution must be in accordance with human nature. When examining deep ecology, we need to consider both its principles which are biocentric egalitarianism and metaphysical holism, and what are their positions before human nature. I think it is important to understand that revolutions are inevitable consequences of cause effect relationships and these relationships are based on reality which is human nature. In other words, it is important to determine what human nature is and find a solution that fits into it. In order to achieve this goal, the two principles of deep ecology must be separated and they need to be judged individually whether they are compatible with human nature or not. In this essay, I will criticize biocentric egalitarianism and I will defend metaphysical holism to point out how biocentric egalitarianism is against and metaphysical holism is in accordance with human nature.

Biocentric egalitarianism is one of the two essential principles of deep ecology, and it constitutes an obstacle before deep ecology’s revolutionary character. The reason for this is the contrariety of biocentric egalitarianism to the human nature. Biocentric egalitarianism requires diminishing the human egoism and increasing the altruism. I think capitalism is directly linked to selfishness of human nature. Selfishness and greed are the main elements of a successful revolution of capitalism. If those qualities of human nature were not present, then capitalism could have not been successful. Similarly, revolution of deep ecology cannot be achieved with the idea of biocentric egalitarianism. Biocentric egalitarianism declares that there is no such a thing as a hierarchy of species. Therefore it requires people to give up their selfish desires. Biocentric egalitarianism is a reaction to capitalism and this fact is stated in Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy which states that “The valuing of human beings over other life forms in the teleology of a great chain of being (Lovejoy 1036) has been a key feature of the European-North American intellectual tradition…(page 207)” meaning that the capitals of capitalism which are Europe and United States of America, are the ones who support ethical and philosophical ideas that defend humans are superior to nonhumans. Biocentric egalitarianism defends that every creature is equal and there is no such a thing as a hierarchy between species. The founder of the term “Deep Ecology” Arne Naess expresses this by saying “the equal right to live and blossom in an intuitively clear and obvious value axiom (page 207)”. But the problem here is, this idea is against human nature as it denies selfishness and does not bring a substitute to it. Because selfishness and greed are in the core of human nature, humans cannot easily abandon those feelings. There has to be a strong motivation for them to abandon selfishness and greed. I think biocentric egalitarianism is unable to convince humans to abandon their selfishness and greed, and that is why it is an obstacle in front of the revolution of deep ecology.

Metaphysical holism is the second one of the two essential principles of deep ecology. It requires people to think themselves as a part of the whole ecology. Similar to biocentric egalitarianism, metaphysical holism too tries to bring an end to the unjust and excessive use of environment. Although biocentric egalitarianism offers a solution which is contradicting to the human nature, metaphysical holism does offer a solution which is compatible with the human nature. Its main point is that humans are embedded in the whole ecology; therefore they should not give any harm to nature. Because humans are selfish, they will stop giving harm to nature if they can be able to think that they are embedded in nature. This brilliant thought beats capitalism with its own weapon which is selfishness. Once people perceive nature as a part of themselves, then they will be able to protect it at all costs. Metaphysical holism is present in some philosopher’s ideas too. Plato’s specific thoughts can be linked to metaphysical holism. Plato thinks that there are two worlds: the world of ideas and the world of phenomena. In the world of ideas, everything is present in the form of one, perfect creature. Everything in the world of phenomena is only an imperfect reflection of the ideas. The connection between this thought and metaphysical holism is in the metaphysical holism if there is harm to any element of nature (phenomenon), that harm is harm for the whole nature (idea). If one can understand this analysis, then that person will have the motivation to not to give harm to anybody. After this realization, the environment of the revolution will be ready, and it will be easier to achieve the revolution of deep ecology. Biocentric egalitarianism can only be a secondary supportive idea of metaphysical holism. Once a person understands the metaphysical holism, that person will have the opportunity to understand biocentric egalitarianism too. Biocentric egalitarianism cannot be understood on its own. After one sees that it is a part of a whole and that whole is the environment, then one can think that every creature is equal to one another. In other words metaphysical holism is the basis of the biocentric egalitarianism, this is why they cannot be two essential principles of deep ecology, but metaphysical can be the one essential element of deep ecology. Biocentric egalitarianism can be the secondary claim of the metaphysical holism.

It is widely accepted that humans are the most important creatures on the earth. They think that the world is only for their exclusive usage and they use it really excessively. It is a really hard task to make them understand and accept that there is a no hierarchy between species at all. So this mind revolution requires some radical movements and open-minded point of view. Metaphysical holism is a best fit for this sharp thought turn. It is both religious and philosophical so it can be accepted and practiced by masses easily. If and only if a human being can accept that all things and species are equal and there is no hierarchical order between them after that human being accepts metaphysical holism. So we see here that biocentric egalitarianism is a consequence of the metaphysical holism. A person is born with selfishness inside him and nothing can erase its nature. So the revolutions must be in accordance with human nature which is generally selfishness. Metaphysical holism enables people to consider themselves equal to everything and pay regard to nature as they pay regard to themselves selfishly. This is the description of biocentric egalitarianism, but it is nearly impossible to achieve that goal of biocentric egalitarianism without metaphysical holism. Deep ecology is in need of an interior revolution in order to achieve an exterior revolution of deep ecology.

Bibliography

Callicott, J. Baird., and Robert Frodeman. "Deep Ecology." Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2009. 207. Print.