ABSTRACT

Confucius is conventionally regarded as the founder of secular humanism and as a philosopher concerned about humans and culture. I would add to this that Confucius should also be read as an environmental philosopher. One reason is the pedagogical dimension in Confucianism, which points to Confucius as an environmental educator — not the least of which since much of environmental education relies on common sense and an enlightened collective self-interest. Another reason is an aspect I call ‘ecological intelligence’, which is a key feature of ancient Confucianism and a signpost for the civil evolution that the mitigation of climate change demands from global civilization today.