Ecological Civilization is the Chinese Wisdom and Chinese Plan …
451
thought on ecology is essentially boiled down to complying with nature and treating
it well. Confucius said “The benevolent love others,” urging people to extend their
benevolence to all things and creatures on earth. Buddhism deems “Buddhahood”
as the origin of all things, whose differences are only the different representations
of Buddhahood; it also advocates equality of all, believing that “mountains, rivers
and plants can all aspire for Buddhahood” and “a pure heart is a pure land.” Taoism
stresses that respecting natural laws is the paramount principle and following the
courses of nature, heaven and earth is the underlying guidance for human behaviors.
These thoughts and assertions are valuable wisdom and spiritual assets left by our
ancestors during their exploration for man-nature relation, and are of great ideological
importance for us to understand the essence of ecological civilization today.
2. Philosophy and fine ideology and culture of the west
(1) The basic idea of Gaia hypothesis is that the interactions between life
and environment can condition earth to be suitable for the lasting survival
and development of life. The Gaia hypothesis was proposed by English
atmospheric scientist James E. Lovelock at the end of the 1960s and
was later developed by him and American biologist Lynn Margulis. This
hypothesis gradually gain much attention in the western scientific circle,
exerting growing influence on people’s perception of earth. The key idea
of Gaia hypothesis is that earth is an organic entity of life. James Lovelock
described earth as “living” and self-regulating. To keep this entity healthy,
“Gaia” would respond and counteract if harmful factors appeared within
the entity.
(2) Process philosophy: Famous English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
founded the process philosophy, also called the philosophy of organism,
in the US in the mid-twentieth century, which is expounded in his Process
and Reality and other books. Whitehead described and explained every
physical and realistic state in relations, such as relation between whole
and part, individual and community, subject and object, system and environment, substance and spirit, end and means, and reality and surreality,
and based his ideas on organic entirety, inherent process, generation and
circulation, and pluralistic co-existence. Some scholars call his process
philosophy the “philosophy of internal relations,” including the internalization of man-nature relation, which leads to the conclusion that caring
for nature is caring for man themselves, and they both exist in the process
of changes. Whitehead’s process philosophy has established a harmonious value—achieving a harmonious universe of beauty and order and
eventually realizing harmony between man and nature, man and man, and
man and itself. This is where process philosophy carries the elements of
ecological civilization, as its ideas of entirety, process, generativism and
internal relations under the thinking framework of process dialectics have
enriched the philosophical essence of China’s ecological civilization.
451
thought on ecology is essentially boiled down to complying with nature and treating
it well. Confucius said “The benevolent love others,” urging people to extend their
benevolence to all things and creatures on earth. Buddhism deems “Buddhahood”
as the origin of all things, whose differences are only the different representations
of Buddhahood; it also advocates equality of all, believing that “mountains, rivers
and plants can all aspire for Buddhahood” and “a pure heart is a pure land.” Taoism
stresses that respecting natural laws is the paramount principle and following the
courses of nature, heaven and earth is the underlying guidance for human behaviors.
These thoughts and assertions are valuable wisdom and spiritual assets left by our
ancestors during their exploration for man-nature relation, and are of great ideological
importance for us to understand the essence of ecological civilization today.
2. Philosophy and fine ideology and culture of the west
(1) The basic idea of Gaia hypothesis is that the interactions between life
and environment can condition earth to be suitable for the lasting survival
and development of life. The Gaia hypothesis was proposed by English
atmospheric scientist James E. Lovelock at the end of the 1960s and
was later developed by him and American biologist Lynn Margulis. This
hypothesis gradually gain much attention in the western scientific circle,
exerting growing influence on people’s perception of earth. The key idea
of Gaia hypothesis is that earth is an organic entity of life. James Lovelock
described earth as “living” and self-regulating. To keep this entity healthy,
“Gaia” would respond and counteract if harmful factors appeared within
the entity.
(2) Process philosophy: Famous English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead
founded the process philosophy, also called the philosophy of organism,
in the US in the mid-twentieth century, which is expounded in his Process
and Reality and other books. Whitehead described and explained every
physical and realistic state in relations, such as relation between whole
and part, individual and community, subject and object, system and environment, substance and spirit, end and means, and reality and surreality,
and based his ideas on organic entirety, inherent process, generation and
circulation, and pluralistic co-existence. Some scholars call his process
philosophy the “philosophy of internal relations,” including the internalization of man-nature relation, which leads to the conclusion that caring
for nature is caring for man themselves, and they both exist in the process
of changes. Whitehead’s process philosophy has established a harmonious value—achieving a harmonious universe of beauty and order and
eventually realizing harmony between man and nature, man and man, and
man and itself. This is where process philosophy carries the elements of
ecological civilization, as its ideas of entirety, process, generativism and
internal relations under the thinking framework of process dialectics have
enriched the philosophical essence of China’s ecological civilization.