598
C. Xu
of man relying on and adapting to nature, so as to achieve sustained and stable
economic development in the agricultural society. From Confucius advocating “awe
for nature” to Zhang Zai recognizing nature’s intrinsic values and calling for the
fulfillment of responsibility for nature, a natural and logical result is what we call
the environmental or ecological ethics today. Therefore, we should fully absorb the
essence of traditional Chinese ecological culture and adapt it to modern times.
In traditional western philosophy and ethics, “value” is an exclusive human trait.
Only man has value (intrinsic value) and natural beings only have meaning when they
are relevant to man’s subjective purpose and only have value (instrumental value)
when they have the usages and functions to meet human needs. Because of these
traditional values, what people see is only nature’s instrumental value and short-term
practical value, a situation that has led to the dire consequence of unlimited conquest
of nature. Serious environmental crisis has prompted profound changes in human
values and forced man to contemplate the significance of nature’s intrinsic values for
mankind.
In early twentieth century, Albert Schweitzer, through the proposition of “reverence for life,” expanded the scope of traditional ethics beyond “human-centrism” that
had dominated the history of thoughts. In Schweitzer’s opinion, all past ethics were
incomplete. In the eyes of traditional ethicists, man and other being were classified,
but any attempt to differentiate them, in whichever way, would unavoidably highlight
man’s superiority over other beings. Therefore, traditional western ethics shaped the
morality, law and way of life between man and man, leaving no space for other
beings. The interpersonal relation could be restricted by morality or law, but once
the relation extended to man and fauna or flora, man’s value became the yardstick to
gauge other beings. Since man was seen as an advanced species, its trample on and
destruction of other species was taken for granted, and its activities harming other
lives became a kind of collective unconsciousness. Schweitzer put all living things in
the scope of ethics and tried to create an ethical view that pursued harmony between
man and other beings, namely reverence for life. According to this principle, man is
not the dictator of other beings and is in no position to harm them either. Man cannot
gauge other species based on their own standards, but should take the initiative to
feel and help other lives. The rules of nature pointed out by Schweitzer indicate that
the natural state we are in is a dynamic balance in which all species affect each other.
Man is powerful in comparison with other species, which means that it is not only
able to seriously damage nature, but also to protect it to the largest extent. If man
could fulfill their responsibilities for other beings, all beings could sustain, making it
possible for the ecological ethics that man and nature co-exist in harmony to become
a reality. The “reverence for life” created by Schweitzer is an important ideological
source of modern ecological ethics.
In the mid-twentieth century, the land ethic proposed by famous American ecologist Leopold broke the boundary of traditional ethics and viewed man and nature
as a whole ethical world. Leopold’s land ethic holds that man, other organic living
things than man and inorganic beings on earth jointly constitute a new land community, in which all members are closely related in reciprocal causation. Although man
has the ability of reasoning, the interdependence among different species decides
C. Xu
of man relying on and adapting to nature, so as to achieve sustained and stable
economic development in the agricultural society. From Confucius advocating “awe
for nature” to Zhang Zai recognizing nature’s intrinsic values and calling for the
fulfillment of responsibility for nature, a natural and logical result is what we call
the environmental or ecological ethics today. Therefore, we should fully absorb the
essence of traditional Chinese ecological culture and adapt it to modern times.
In traditional western philosophy and ethics, “value” is an exclusive human trait.
Only man has value (intrinsic value) and natural beings only have meaning when they
are relevant to man’s subjective purpose and only have value (instrumental value)
when they have the usages and functions to meet human needs. Because of these
traditional values, what people see is only nature’s instrumental value and short-term
practical value, a situation that has led to the dire consequence of unlimited conquest
of nature. Serious environmental crisis has prompted profound changes in human
values and forced man to contemplate the significance of nature’s intrinsic values for
mankind.
In early twentieth century, Albert Schweitzer, through the proposition of “reverence for life,” expanded the scope of traditional ethics beyond “human-centrism” that
had dominated the history of thoughts. In Schweitzer’s opinion, all past ethics were
incomplete. In the eyes of traditional ethicists, man and other being were classified,
but any attempt to differentiate them, in whichever way, would unavoidably highlight
man’s superiority over other beings. Therefore, traditional western ethics shaped the
morality, law and way of life between man and man, leaving no space for other
beings. The interpersonal relation could be restricted by morality or law, but once
the relation extended to man and fauna or flora, man’s value became the yardstick to
gauge other beings. Since man was seen as an advanced species, its trample on and
destruction of other species was taken for granted, and its activities harming other
lives became a kind of collective unconsciousness. Schweitzer put all living things in
the scope of ethics and tried to create an ethical view that pursued harmony between
man and other beings, namely reverence for life. According to this principle, man is
not the dictator of other beings and is in no position to harm them either. Man cannot
gauge other species based on their own standards, but should take the initiative to
feel and help other lives. The rules of nature pointed out by Schweitzer indicate that
the natural state we are in is a dynamic balance in which all species affect each other.
Man is powerful in comparison with other species, which means that it is not only
able to seriously damage nature, but also to protect it to the largest extent. If man
could fulfill their responsibilities for other beings, all beings could sustain, making it
possible for the ecological ethics that man and nature co-exist in harmony to become
a reality. The “reverence for life” created by Schweitzer is an important ideological
source of modern ecological ethics.
In the mid-twentieth century, the land ethic proposed by famous American ecologist Leopold broke the boundary of traditional ethics and viewed man and nature
as a whole ethical world. Leopold’s land ethic holds that man, other organic living
things than man and inorganic beings on earth jointly constitute a new land community, in which all members are closely related in reciprocal causation. Although man
has the ability of reasoning, the interdependence among different species decides