Product Description

Instead of thinking of nature as a resource to be used for human needs, deep ecology argues that the true value of nature is intrinsic. This comprehensive and wide-ranging anthology contains almost 50 articles by the leading writers and thinkers in the field, offering a broad array of perspectives on this important approach to environmentalism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #272138 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-24
• Released on: 1995-01-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 520 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781570620492
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Library Journal
This understandable and much-needed anthology attempts to dispel the confusions and misunderstandings about "deep ecology" that have provoked charges of misanthropy from partisans of anthropocentric alternatives and even affected Vice President Al Gore's influential work, Earth in the Balance (LJ 3/1/93). Contributors are recognized theorists, historians, and activists in the deep ecology movement, including editor Sessions, a philosopher; poet Gary Snyder; environmental historian Donald Worster; wilderness advocate Dave Foreman; and the founder of the movement, Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Arne Naess. In Part 1, various theorists define deep ecology and explore the cultural significance of its ecocentric orientation; Part 2 examines the historical roots of this movement in literature, philosophy, and science; Part 3 consists solely of Naess's recent essays, most of them previously unpublished; Part 4 differentiates deep ecology from social ecology, ecofeminism, and New Age positions; Part 5 explains the connection of deep ecology to wilderness preservation; and Part 6 centers on the dubious politics of sustainable development. An important purchase for academic and larger public libraries.
Joan S. Elbers, formerly with Montgomery Coll., Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This anthology, although dominated by the writings of Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher who formulated the ecosophy of the deep ecology movement, presents a broad mix of issues by leading deep ecologists. Glendinning argues that psychological distress results from our alienation from nature. Turner profiles Gary Snyder's efforts to practice his vision of "living as part of a larger system of plant and animal communities governed by reciprocity." McLaughlin clarifies Naess' eight-point platform for change, and Snyder proposes specific action on several levels in the areas of population, pollution, consumption, and transformation (of society). Sessions discusses the roots of ecocentrism and anthropocentrism, the ecocentric philosophers (Spinoza, Thoreau, Muir, Santayana), and modern writers with an ecocentric message (Leopold and Carson, among others). Also included are a consideration of ecofeminist charges of androcentrism, and an examination of the ideologies of the New Age movement, generally antipodal to those of deep ecology. Brenda Grazis

Customer Reviews

In the Beginning . . .
The first words of this venerable and very important anthology of seminal papers in environmental ethics are these: "The Long-Range Deep Ecology movement emerged more or less spontaneously and informally as a philosophical and scientific social/political movement during the so-called Ecological revolution of the 1960's. Its main concern has been to bring about a paradigm shift - a shift in perception, values, and lifestyles - as a basis for redirecting the ecologically destructive path of modern industrial growth societies. Since the 1960's, the long-range Deep Ecology movement has been characterized philosophically by a move from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism, and by environmental activism."
I cite this passage because, sadly, the international corporate hegemony, its paid political operatives, and multifarious media mouthpieces have done such a deceitfully effective job of at once clouding the real issue of our desperately precarious environmental situation and reinforcing our wholly unnecessary dependence of non-renewable energy resources to the tune of record profits, that there are many people coming of age in the most literate societies in the world, who have no idea of what Deep Ecology is, not to mention such a basic distinction as that between anthropocentrism to ecocentrism. Actually, I would say that the vast majority of the planet's population is either ignorant of this distinction or acts in feigned ignorance or ignorance-based denial of it. The idea that our ultimate nurturing and sustaining parent is the Earth, that we live on borrowed time, that our first responsibility in any sort of act is consideration of our responsibility to stewardship of this planet, is generally far from most people's minds when they do act. From radical (and radically unnecessary) clear-cut to all-too common litter, as a humanity, we obviously don't get it.
The corporate think-tank seems to produce an never ending stream of ongoing rationalizations and euphemistically-coated rationales for the relentless wholesale destruction of the only home we have, and we embrace, however unwillingly in some cases, but generally unconsciously in most, the systems which enable this unremitting and mindless extirpation of the root of life to go on.
Thus, a bit of re-education on the subject, the philosophical justifications for the ecocentric worldview, might be in order. I can think of no better place to start than the 39 papers in Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, which discuss this need for a shift in our thinking as a humanity in depth.
The book is divided into five sections: What is Deep Ecology?; Historical Roots of Deep Ecology; Arne Naess on Deep Ecology and Ecosophy; Deep Ecology and Eco-Feminism, Social Ecology, the Greens, and the New Age; Wilderness, The Wild, and Conservation Biology; Toward the Twenty-First Century and Beyond: Social and Practical Implications. The book focuses particularly on work of Arne Naess (12 entries) and Gary Snyder (3 entries), two foundational voices deeply rooted in vertices in the philosophical matrix of the position.
Two of my favorite entries in this book, for various reasons, are:
1) Stephan Bodian's interview with Arne Naess, "Simple in Means, Rich in Ends" (1982) "... technology is more helpless than ever before because the technology being produced doesn't fulfill basic human needs, such as meaningful work and meaningful environment. Technical progress is sham progress because the term `technical progress' is a cultural, not a technical term. Our culture is the only one in the history of humankind in which the culture has adjusted itself to the technology rather than visa-versa." "The material standard of living should be reduced and the quality of life, in the sense of basic satisfaction in the depths of one's heart or soul, should be maintained or increased." "All the sciences are fragmentary and incomplete in relation to basic rules and norms, so it's very shallow to think that science can solve our problems. Without basic norms, there is no science. Of course, we need science ..." "A hill is never the same in a repetitious way! The development of sensitivity toward the good things of which there are enough is the true goal of education. Not that we need to limit our goals. I'm not for the simple life, except in the sense of a life simple in means but rich in goals and values." One is led to ask if environmentally exploitative corporate capitalists do not have goals and values as well? Then, while we are, at least, conscious of the possibility of choice, we evidently should focus more on what our goals and values are, why they are what they are, and what are their ultimate ramifications for us? These are fundamental questions, religious questions, if you will, but we rarely ask them directly of ourselves or in a public forum.
2) Wayland Drew's study of anti-utopian fiction, "Killing Wilderness" (1972) "Specifically ... a technological society will be totalitarian regardless of what political structures permit its development, for the essence of technique is efficiency and the autonomous individual, apt to be skeptical, irrational, and recalcitrant, is inefficient. For the general good therefore, the dangerous elements of individuality must be suppressed, and man must be severed from all the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional influences which might promote dissent. Man's integrity must be broken. He must be fragmented and reshaped to participate contentedly in the smooth functioning of the technological State - a State that is fundamentally inimical to his instinct and insulting to his intellect. In other words, the nature of man must be changed." The corporation (as a legal entity or form) is the instrument of that fragmentation and change, and its will, the dictates of the State. "In its mystery and diversity, in exuberance, decay, and fecundity, the perfection of the wilderness contrasts with the sterile and static perfection of the State. The difference between them is that between existence and life, between predictability and chance, between posturing and action. Wilderness ... will threaten the totalitarian state while they co-exist, for the separation of man from nature is imperfect so long as man might recognize that a separation has occurred." "While we are able to do so, let us note the distinction. A park is a managerial unit definable in quantitative and pragmatic terms. Wilderness is unquantifiable. Its boundaries are vague or nonexistent, its contents unknown, its inhabitants elusive. The purpose of parks is use; the earmark of wilderness is mystery. Because they serve technology, parks tend toward the predictable and static, but wilderness is infinitely burgeoning and changing because it is the matrix of life itself. When we create parks we bow to increased bureaucracy and surveillance, but when we speak for wilderness we recognize our right to fewer strictures and greater freedom. Regulated and crowded, parks will eventually fragment us, as they fragment the wilderness which makes us whole."
There are hundreds of other crucial observations in this monumental collection. My one plaint is that the eloquence of great Petra Kelley is not represented. Hopefully, this unfortuanate omission of the slain sister of all Greens will be emended in a future printing or sequel volume, which is overdue. However, these are the decisive early testaments. Please heed them.

Fairness to George Sessions
I am the brother of George Sessions and I am writing to protest
the negative, ad hominem remarks of the review by "California Climber." He says in his otherwise positive review: "Those of you who can read it without experiencing Prof Sessions have a great advantage. He put together an excellent book, unfortunately he is a real jerk. I have never had an instructor talk down to students the way he did."

George Sessions has had thousands of students over the years at Sierra College and has had, on average, excellent reviews by his students in their evaluation of his classes. His courses are very popular and he is highly thought of by most students and faculty at the college. "California Climber" disagrees, which is his right, but it is not his right to personally attack Prof. Sessions in an Amazon "review", where the attack cannot be rebutted, and especially by a former student using an anonymous pseudonym.

I asked my brother if he knew who "California Climber" was and he replied "no." But he said that over the years there have been those students who do not meet the highly demanding work required in his class and who are unhappy with their grades. He said he often uses the "Socratic" method in his classes, calling on students to explain their views, and some students do not like this. Most do. I have personally sat in on my brother's classes and found most of the students to enjoy my brother's humorous and charismatic but somewhat challenging style. Is this teaching approach for everyone? Maybe not. But it is a "cheap shot" to do what California Climber did in his review. Who really is the
"real jerk" here?

Richard Sessions

Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century
Absolutely spectacular anthology! I lost my copy and could barely keep from crying. Great information for those new to Deep Ecology. Terrific reading for those familiar with it.