Human ecology as philosophy

This paper articulates the essentially philosophical character of human ecology. The first section argues that the often-noted concern of human ecology for both sustainability and equity is best understood as a concern to help humans implicated in problematic human–environment interactions to identify how to refashion these interactions so as to enable a more sustainable balance between the moral claims of others and their own needs and desires. Human ecology is therefore governed by a unitary practical interest in facilitating a more sustainable balance between virtue and happiness—living well in Aristotle’s sense. If this is so, then human ecology must be done, in certain phases of its practice, as philosophy. The second section then illustrates how this general conception applies to and shapes the investigation of a concrete issue—consumption—particularly in first world economies. It also shows how, given this conception of human ecology as philosophy, this issue is not just one important target of investigation alongside others but the central human ecological topic. Finally, the third section argues that human ecology, done as philosophy, also requires grounding in philosophy. Specifically, it needs a general account of what it is to be the rational animals we humans are since only this can give action-guiding content to the idea of living well without tendentiously prescribing any specific form of life. In conclusion, it is argued that the philosophical character of human ecology explains what it means to describe it as a multi-, inter-, trans-, and even adisciplinary fusion of biological and social sciences.