What is it that Ecohumanism Research aspires to? The purpose of this brief article is to address this question. But first, it is necessary to consider the website’s philosophy, which will put the topic into context.
Ecohumanism Research is a semi-academic project that exists for the purpose of advancing ecohumanism, which is a holistic philosophy that can help people become more closely connected to an environment, including all living and non-living entities that it is comprised of. What this means is that insofar as it combines the best that science and religion have to offer in terms of logic and ethics, respectively, it is spiritual. It is spiritual in the sense in that it involves the evolution of the whole human, in other words, it is both objective and subjective. In simple terms, it is a philosophy that is both felt and understood with regard to seeing how everything in nature is connected to, and has a relationship with everything else either directly or indirectly. As such, it is neither anthropocentric (human-centered) nor ecocentric (ecology-centered). Rather, its holistic approach allows for obtaining a balance that is favorable for the flourishing of humans and all other organisms, including the ecosystems that they are a part of and form a part of.
Before describing the website’s aspiration, it is worth considering the impetus for it, which is the need for humans to change their way of thinking so that they may unleash their potential and evolve as beings. This requires making changes to objective reality, which is the environment that surrounds humans and that is external to them. In other words, it is everything that is perceivable through the senses that include but are not limited to: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory. It also requires making changes to subjective reality, which corresponds to a human being’s feelings, emotions, thoughts, and perceptions. In this regard, the feature image of this article illustrates the expansion of an individual’s awareness, where the black circle represents the individual’s subjective reality, whereas the colored rings signify the expansion of their awareness toward ever higher levels, thus becoming more closely connected to objective reality. Human evolution is the result, which manifests not just because of circumstance but also due to intent.
Historically, at least from the perspective of the West, it is objective reality that humans have learned to value the most, whereas subjective reality has been subordinate.1 The bias toward objective reality became most pronounced during the 17th and 18th centuries, which was a period that scholars generally refer to as the Enlightenment.2 It is during this period that science as we recognize it today has its origins. It is also during this period that humans began to significantly disconnect themselves from the environment as they treated it as an object that was separate from human existence. Concurrently, the disciplinary approach of science has contributed to the disintegration of nature so that people could only perceive it for its isolated and static parts. To some extent, these trends are persisting to this day, which allows us to comprehend the reasons behind the numerous social, economic, and ecological problems that pose a challenge to long-term human survival and wellbeing.3-4
With the above-mentioned having been established, the aspiration of Ecohumanism Research is to encourage a philosophical (and spiritual) transformation whereby humans value not only themselves, but also the environment in which they are necessarily embedded in, including all other living and non-living entities it is comprised of. However, this will require societies from across the world to change their cultures. More specifically this involves shifting their worldviews and morals so that they become ecological. This will be challenging, yet at the same time, it is necessary for long-term human survival and wellbeing, including the integrity of Earth’s ecosystems. At present, humans have not learned how to intelligently manage the planet’s natural resources. What this signifies in addition to the lack of appreciation there is for the life that Earth gives, it indicates that humans have progress to make in conducting themselves and in a way that is meaningful. But what does it mean for something to have meaning? Let’s take a moment to pause and reflect about the subtle irony of this question! Nonetheless, it is for the reader to decide what this may be.5
To conclude, in accordance to the philosophy of ecohumanism, in order for humans to have lives that are abundant with life, both in a literal sense and in a metaphoric sense, it requires that they become aware of how they are inextricably linked to everything else in nature. Instead of only focusing upon its isolated and static fragments, humans must learn to perceive change and wholeness. Likewise, they must learn to value the relationship with the environment that they are embedded in at any given time. Encouraging all of this is what Ecohumanism Research aspires to make a contribution to.
References
1 Wilber, K. (2017) A Brief History of Everything. Boston: Shambhala.
2 Duignan, B. (ed.) (2022) Enlightenment, Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Enlightenment-European-history.
3 I briefly discuss how humans have contributed to these problems and some of their symptoms in a commentary article.
4 The concept of Planetary Boundaries (PB) is relevant in this context as it describes how humans can survive and evolve within environmental limits. Please see the following reference for more information: Steffen, W. et al. (2015) “Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet,” Science, 347(6223). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855.
5 Hint: It depends upon the human being. Please review the third paragraph for clarification.