Thoughts on the Philosophical
Foundation of Ecological Civilization
Chun Xu
1 Conception of Nature Is the Logical Precondition
for the Study of Ecological Civilization Theories
The conception of nature is the foundation of philosophy in every age. We cannot
study ecological civilization without discussing the conception of nature, which is
the theoretical and logical precondition. People’s conception of nature is changing
with the change of their ability to understand and change nature. This change,
which is driven by scientific and technological progress and by the inheritance and
development of academic thoughts, should be studied on the theoretical level.
Since the birth of human civilization, humans have first and foremost engaged in
agricultural production in utilizing and reforming nature. Ancient civilizations in both
the East and West were characterized by agricultural economy as the fundamental
sector. In comparison, the agricultural civilization in ancient China, for a very long
period of time, was in a leading position of human evolution. It gave birth to the idea
of “man and nature in one” that advocated strictly following natural laws and opposed
blindly interfering in nature. At that time, the mainstream philosophy on the relation
between man and nature was that man should adapt to nature. The generation of such
a simple ecological philosophy was attributed to the fact that agricultural production
relied completely and fully on nature.
In western culture, before the time of ancient Greece, people generally held a
mythological view of nature and animism. In the sixth century BC, ancient Greek
philosophy came into being, which was penetrated from the beginning to the end by
the study of nature. The Greeks had the valuable instinct that world was a living, mythical and continuously growing organic entity from which all matters and creatures
grew. The Greek ideology and the Bible of Christianity were the main thoughts that
influenced natural philosophy in the Middle Ages. In that period, Christianity dominated the ideological world in Western Europe, and philosophy, as it was employed to
C. Xu (B)
Peking University, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_59
595
Foundation of Ecological Civilization
Chun Xu
1 Conception of Nature Is the Logical Precondition
for the Study of Ecological Civilization Theories
The conception of nature is the foundation of philosophy in every age. We cannot
study ecological civilization without discussing the conception of nature, which is
the theoretical and logical precondition. People’s conception of nature is changing
with the change of their ability to understand and change nature. This change,
which is driven by scientific and technological progress and by the inheritance and
development of academic thoughts, should be studied on the theoretical level.
Since the birth of human civilization, humans have first and foremost engaged in
agricultural production in utilizing and reforming nature. Ancient civilizations in both
the East and West were characterized by agricultural economy as the fundamental
sector. In comparison, the agricultural civilization in ancient China, for a very long
period of time, was in a leading position of human evolution. It gave birth to the idea
of “man and nature in one” that advocated strictly following natural laws and opposed
blindly interfering in nature. At that time, the mainstream philosophy on the relation
between man and nature was that man should adapt to nature. The generation of such
a simple ecological philosophy was attributed to the fact that agricultural production
relied completely and fully on nature.
In western culture, before the time of ancient Greece, people generally held a
mythological view of nature and animism. In the sixth century BC, ancient Greek
philosophy came into being, which was penetrated from the beginning to the end by
the study of nature. The Greeks had the valuable instinct that world was a living, mythical and continuously growing organic entity from which all matters and creatures
grew. The Greek ideology and the Bible of Christianity were the main thoughts that
influenced natural philosophy in the Middle Ages. In that period, Christianity dominated the ideological world in Western Europe, and philosophy, as it was employed to
C. Xu (B)
Peking University, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_59
595