ABSTRACT
In the Introduction to Part I we have noted that we cannot expect to find a ‘grand theory’ of human ecology. But despite all the seeming divergence exhibited by the concerns and viewpoints of the disciplines that we regard as being constitutive for a general human ecology (the collection of papers in this volume may be taken as an illustration), it is still possible to find a common ground. The papers contained in Part II may serve as an example of how this may be achieved. What they have in common can be seen in the following: all papers make reference to or make use of different (implicit and explicit) modes of consciousness and knowledge that are constitutive for the existence of human beings and their dealings with the (biophysical and social) environment. If one is willing to accept the argument that the person can be seen as a medium of integration,1 it is obvious that we should try to do precisely this: explore the role of the different domains of human consciousness for the way human beings relate to the social surroundings and the biophysical environment. This is the topic of Section 1.2 From here we will proceed to a discussion of the value of the most explicit form of scientific expression, namely mathematics, in a human ecology context (Section 2) and to an aspect of human life that traditionally had an implicit character, namely morality.
