40
GERALD L. YOUNG
Pfaltzgraff (1968) expands this image by noting that “the environment
of the international system has a structural or institutional dimension
which includes the number and kinds of nations within the system, the
number and kinds of alliances, coalitions or non-aligned nations, and the
organizational frameworks for the management of power”.
The above ideas may be drawn into an analogy (based on the homeostatic relationship between entropy and negentropy) to summarize and
emphasize the closeness of the relationship between ecology and political
science, an analogy similar to those Boulding has repeatedly used to
define the relationship between economics and ecology. For this purpose,
then, ecology may be defined as the study of the forces interacting in
nature to attain a balanced system in natural communities. By close
analogy, politics is the study of the forces interacting among men to
attain a balance in human communities. Ecology is the study of the
striving for and recognition of order in the natural community and
political science is the study of the striving for and recognition of (the
need for) order ‘in the human community or international system (see
Brassert, 1956).
c. T H E T R A D I T I O N O F H U M A N I S T I C E C O L O G Y I N
P H I L O S O P H Y A N D T H E A R T S
It seems as if all things of man have at one time or another been
brought within the scrutiny of the classical philosophers, in a field of
thought that stretches back to the founders of the sciences and theology.
So it is with human ecology; much can be gained toward understanding
the nature of the relationship between man and his environment,
through examination of the philosophical schools of thought.
Is there a tradition of humanistic ecology in the history of philosophy?
None of the various schools of thought are so named or clearly so
oriented. Much of philosophical thought, however, is oriented toward
trying to understand the role of man in nature, his place in the natural
scheme of things, though not perhaps as clearly as Jones (1971) would
imply: “In all philosophies man is a part of nature”.
At least one basis of thought is the attempt to comprehend the logic,
the order of life, the pattern of relationships and interactions. There is
benefit to be gained in the establishment of a dialogue between philosophy and students of the ecology of man. Here is where we shall try to
find the foundation for a definition of humanistic ecology.
I n the next few paragraphs I hope to trace, through a number of
examples, a thread of human ecological thought in the writings of
classical philosophy, and then to suggest this thread as the framework
for a Humanistic Ecology tradition in philosophy. I cannot enter here
GERALD L. YOUNG
Pfaltzgraff (1968) expands this image by noting that “the environment
of the international system has a structural or institutional dimension
which includes the number and kinds of nations within the system, the
number and kinds of alliances, coalitions or non-aligned nations, and the
organizational frameworks for the management of power”.
The above ideas may be drawn into an analogy (based on the homeostatic relationship between entropy and negentropy) to summarize and
emphasize the closeness of the relationship between ecology and political
science, an analogy similar to those Boulding has repeatedly used to
define the relationship between economics and ecology. For this purpose,
then, ecology may be defined as the study of the forces interacting in
nature to attain a balanced system in natural communities. By close
analogy, politics is the study of the forces interacting among men to
attain a balance in human communities. Ecology is the study of the
striving for and recognition of order in the natural community and
political science is the study of the striving for and recognition of (the
need for) order ‘in the human community or international system (see
Brassert, 1956).
c. T H E T R A D I T I O N O F H U M A N I S T I C E C O L O G Y I N
P H I L O S O P H Y A N D T H E A R T S
It seems as if all things of man have at one time or another been
brought within the scrutiny of the classical philosophers, in a field of
thought that stretches back to the founders of the sciences and theology.
So it is with human ecology; much can be gained toward understanding
the nature of the relationship between man and his environment,
through examination of the philosophical schools of thought.
Is there a tradition of humanistic ecology in the history of philosophy?
None of the various schools of thought are so named or clearly so
oriented. Much of philosophical thought, however, is oriented toward
trying to understand the role of man in nature, his place in the natural
scheme of things, though not perhaps as clearly as Jones (1971) would
imply: “In all philosophies man is a part of nature”.
At least one basis of thought is the attempt to comprehend the logic,
the order of life, the pattern of relationships and interactions. There is
benefit to be gained in the establishment of a dialogue between philosophy and students of the ecology of man. Here is where we shall try to
find the foundation for a definition of humanistic ecology.
I n the next few paragraphs I hope to trace, through a number of
examples, a thread of human ecological thought in the writings of
classical philosophy, and then to suggest this thread as the framework
for a Humanistic Ecology tradition in philosophy. I cannot enter here