Deep Ecology

One of the components of Deep Ecology that I find particularly useful is that it contains certain ethics/philosophy that translate directly into lifestyle choices. Even though this approach moves away from having humans at its center, it still ties in the need for human beings to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives. I agree with Deep Ecology’s emphasis on self-realization, but in this view, it has less to do with the individual pursuit and more with the “process of self-examination in which people come to understand themselves as part of a greater whole” (DJ 216). In my understanding, when the criteria of this statement are met, the human is following a path that moves within certain ecological boundaries; however, these boundaries are meant in no way to hinder the growth of that person. I think this type of development suggests a community beyond the self that is important for human growth but is often overlooked in those societies that hold individualism as the highest form of self-realization. According to the Deep Ecology approach, living minimally or adopting “lifestyles that ‘tread lightly on the Earth’” (DJ 218) are the underlying features constructing this path to self-realization. To me, one of Deep Ecology’s strengths as a set of ethics is that it provides this fairly straightforward foundation, which can easily translate into everyday decisions, namely, eliminating the waste in daily life.

That said, as I look back over the paragraph I’ve just written, there might be something too abstract about Deep Ecology, or if not abstract, something too extreme to be an approach that can be used by large groups of people. As DesJardins mentions, “self-realization” is already such an ambiguous concept and its role in an ethical approach also seems problematic. But I do think that by including self-realization Deep Ecology does move away from some of the problems that non-anthropocentric ethical arguments face, that being a complete revision of the human-animal relationship that places humans at the same moral standing as animals. Although the approach still does this, by including the “self-realization” component the ethical approach provides humans with an already widely accepted purpose of life (finding the Self).